Selections From The

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FROM WEST LAS ANIMAS TO PUEBLO. 85.34 MILES

BUILT PARTLY BY

THE PUEBLO AND SALT LAKE RAILWAY COMPANY

THE PUEBLO AND ARKANSAS VALLEY RAILRAOD COMPANY I

THE PURBLO AND ARKANSAS VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY II

CONSTRUCTED 1874-MARCH 5, 1876

Neither one of the three companies built the 85.34 miles alone. Each of the three did some part of the work. No segregation between the several companies is available. The aims and accomplishments of the Pueblo and Arkansas Valley Railroad Company (I) have heretofore been stated. The aims of the PUEBLO AND SALT LAKE RAILWAY COMPANY were as follows:

Second

That the objects and purposes of said company are to locate, build, construct, manage, operate and maintain certain railroad and telegraph line to be hereinafter described and to purchase, acquire, improve and dispose of lands or any interest therein, either absolutely or on condition or maintenance of said railroad and telegraph line; the said railroad as well as said telegraph is describe and by route is designated as follows, that is to say: commencing at a point at or near Granada in bent County, Colorado Territory in the Arkansas Valley thence westerly and northwesterly, following the general direction of and along said valley or slopes thereof of the Arkansas river by such route as may be deemed most advantageous and practicable through the Counties of Bent and Pueblo is said territory thence extending in a westerly and northwesterly direction by way of the Tennessee pass through the Counties of Fremont and Lake in said Territory to the western boundary thereof; thence in a northwesterly direction to Salt Lake City in the Territory of Utah. Said telegraph line as mentioned herein is to be built constructed, operated and maintained by said railway company at its option or election and along the line and route of said railroad as hereinbefore specified or as near thereto as may be though (sic) as may be thought expedient by said railway company and, that offices for the transaction of all telegraphic business shall be opened and maintained at such points along the line of said railroad as may be deemed expedient.

The termini of said telegraph line shall be the same as the termini of said railroad.

The Corporators

Mark A Shaffenburg George M Chilcott William A Orman Oliver H P Baxter Mahlon D. Thatcher Peter K Dotson James N Carlile Jefferson Raynolds

There are practically no construction records available other than what are disclosed in ICC Valuation Reports, Volume 127, from which the following accomplishments are noted:

The Pueblo and Salt Lake Railway Company was incorporated December 13, 1873, in the Territory of Colorado. No accounting records of the company were obtained. Therefore no information can be given from its accounts regarding its financial dealings, corporate operations, or investments. How ever, certain data indicated below were obtained from its minute book. It was controlled on September 29, 1875, the date of consolidation, by officials of the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Rail Road Company through ownership of a majority of its outstanding capital stock. On the other hand, the records reviewed do not indicate that this company controlled any other common-carrier corporations. An undetermined amount of uncompleted construction work was performed for this company by independent contractors between West Las Animas and Pueblo, Colo.

The aims and accomplishments of Colorado and new Mexico Railroad Company have heretofore been stated.

Inasmuch as the consolidated company known as The Pueblo And Arkansas Valley Railroad Company II resulted from the joining of Colorado And New Mexico Railroad Company The Pueblo And Salt Lake Railway Company The Pueblo And Arkansas Valley Railroad Company I It follows that the aims of The P&AV RR Co II were all the things that the three component parts had separately announced as their aims. The following language is illuminating:

Whereas

The said corporation companies are convinced that such consolidation will enable the consolidated company better and more speedily and fully to carry out and accomplish the objects for which the said several corporations were created and organized to wit: the building and completing of a line of railway which shall be continuous and of uniform gauge from the western terminus of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad at the western line of the Territory of Colorado, up the Arkansas Valley to the city of Pueblo, in the Territory of Colorado, with such extensions as may hereafter be deemed expedient and as are authorized by the articles of incorporation of the said several companies or any or ether of them.

The three companies, each of which had a part in the constructing the line from West Las Animas to Pueblo, finished the task on March 5, 1976, when the line was put in operation.

Here follow copies of the contract between THE PUEBLO AND ARKANSAS VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY II and COMMONWEALTH CONTRACT COMPANY, together with a Statement of Account between the two companies. These two documents show how the cost of construction was financed.

Following the documents relative to COMMONWEALTH CONTRACT COMPANY there will be found newspaper accounts dealing with the early planning and building of the road to Pueblo and the grand celebration upon the opening of the line to public use.

On account of the subsequent so called "War" between the D&RG and the Santa Fe there is also inserted a newspaper account of the former's coming to Pueblo.

Immediately following the above is a copy of a list of engineers' reports of surveys made north and northwest of Pueblo prefaced by a paper headed SURVEYS. The reports follow immediately after the listing of Surveys.

Part of Page 60 through page 62 transcribe in altered form for the net by Larry Green

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