The Ogden Standard

FIRST SURVEY OF ST. GEORGE LINE

Much has been said of the Iron Mountain, St George & Grand Canyon railroad, and now that the preliminary survey has been completed and the first map drawn, the details will be of interest. The line leaves the Salt Lake Route at Thermo and runs to Cedar City via Enoch. From Cedar it goes to Kanarra and at a point a few miles east of New Harmony it branches.

The Kingman branch is projected to run through the following places: Belleville, Silver Reef, Leeds, Harrisburg, Washington, Middleton, and St. George, where it makes a turn up Santa Clara creek at a point near Santa Clara and then makes another turn to the southwest, effecting an easy grade in crossing the Beaver Dam mountains, thence to Littlefield, Bunkerville and St. Thomas.

The Colorado river is crossed at Stone Ferry, a few miles west of Rioville. This is a pioneer landing in the old river steamboats fully and interestingly described in a recent Sunday paper. Then the line runs due south to Kingman, Ariz., where it connects with the Santa Fe.

Returning to the point of divergence near New Harmony, the other line runs southeast through Virgin, Canaan Spring, Short Creek and east to Pipe Springs and Mangum Springs in Arizona. Between Pipe Springs and Mangum Springs the third branch runs to the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Arizona, at a point about fifty miles south of Kanab. That town is north of the railroad line between Pipe and Mangum Springs but a few miles.

A distinct feature of the whole project is that it penetrates an entirely new and virgin field, and at no point after leaving Thermo does it compete or aim to compete with any other railroad or branch. The entire region is rich in products of mines, the soil of forests, of animals, while the scenic attractions, headed by the Grand Canyon, would make it the most wonderfully attractive railroad in the world.

As a retreat for campers, hunters and fishermen it would be a paradise.

Engineer Burgess has completed a map which is a most thorough one in setting forth the exact geographical outline of the country, as well as the geological and industrial possibilities. It shows one of the most extensive inland empires not reached by a railroad that can be found in the whole west.