72 
ROUTE NEAR TEE THIRTY-EIGHTH AND THIRTY-NINTH PARALLELS. 
dition, the former from the meridian of 99° west being apparently tertiary, excepting in the 
high mountain passes. 
The great coal field of Missouri lies at the eastern extremity of the road, and could supply 
fuel on the route as far as the Rocky mountains—and still further west, should the coal for¬ 
mations on Grand river not yield an abundant supply. The existence of a seam one foot 
thick, though not sufficient for profitable working, is a good indication that others accompany 
it that would admit of mining. 
In regard to grade and construction, it would appear that the Sangre de Cristo and 
Coo-che-to-pa passes are practicable; the latter with a tunnel nearly two miles long; their great¬ 
est grades are 103 and 124 feet per mile; their elevations are 9,200 and 10,000 feet above the 
sea, the general elevation of the mountain chains being 2,000 and 2,500 feet higher than this. 
The construction of the road through the Coo-che-to-pa Pass and the western approach 
to it would he costly under favorable circumstances of population, &c., not only on account of 
the tunnel, hut of the numerous ravines that are crossed west of the pass, and the canon that 
follows. 
From the head of the canon on Grand river, not far below the mouth of Coo-che-to-pa creek, 
to the Uncompahgra river, a distance of 70 miles, the ground is cut up with deep, wide, 
precipitous ravines, (the largest several hundred feet deep,) over which the construction of a 
railroad is utterly impracticable. These ravines cannot be turned near the mountains with¬ 
out encountering similar difficulties, and at a cost greater than that of a route along the river. 
Thus the route is forced upon Grand river, and along its canon, 60 miles in length, broken 
and interrupted by the deep ravines already mentioned, and numerous smaller gulleys. The 
road-way throughout the greater part of this distance must be blasted out of solid rock, and these 
wide ravines, from 100 to 200 feet deep, where they cut through the canon, crossed by via¬ 
ducts or filling. Then follow 50 miles to the mouth of Blue river, the construction still of a 
difficult and costly character from the canons of the river and broken nature of the ground. 
From Blue to Green river is 100 miles, over which the road will require numerous bridges and 
culverts, and a costly road-bed foundation of broken stone or piling over a clayey soil, in 
which, in wet weather, animals sink half-leg deep. From Green river to the Wahsatch Pass, 
about 80 miles, the construction would still he of a costly character, the country being of the 
same ravine and chasm-like nature as that between the mouth of Coo-che-to-pa creek and 
Uncompahgra river, though on a smaller scale. Next follows the Wahsatch Pass, the work 
in which is difficult and expensive; the greatest grade is 131 feet per mile; a tunnel not quite 
three-quarters of a mile long is requisite; and finally a canon 16 miles long on Salt creek, the 
walls of which are frequently broken by lateral streams, gives the only route along which the 
road can he brought, by cutting in solid rock at very great expense. 
The difficulties of engineering, and the cost of construction of this portion of the route from 
the Cooclietopa Pass to Sevier river, in the Great Basin, a distance of about 500 miles, would 
be so great that it may be pronounced impracticable; and it is evident, from the report of Lieu¬ 
tenant Beckwith, that, to use his own language, “no other line exists in the immediate vicinity 
of this worthy of any attention in connexion with the construction of a railroad from the Mis¬ 
sissippi river to the Great Basin.” 
It is unnecessary, therefore, to consider the route further, or to enter into any discussion 
connected with the probable practicability and cost of constructing and working a railroad 
over other portions of the route, where not one counterbalancing advantage is to be found to 
compensate, in any degree, for the enormous cost of that under consideration. 
Laying aside the utter impracticability of this route, the following considerations will show 
its disadvantages as regards expenses of working, supposing it constructed. 
From Westport to the west base of the Un-kuk-oo-ap mountains is 1,323 miles; sum of 
ascents, 23,190 feet; of descents, 19,050 feet; length of equivalent horizontal line for the route, 
2,123 miles. 
