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Show 107 From Colorado Springs the first route is joined by a road via the Ute Pass, Colorado Salt- Works, Trout Creek Pass, and the valley of the Upper Arkansas, near the mouth of Puncho Creek, after which it coincides with this first route. Also from Conejos and the southern portion of the San Luis Valley the third route may be. reached by a road via El Rito and Ojo Caliente. Annexed hereto are tables of distances by way of either of the roads, except the tbird, which has not been surveyed throughout its length. The notes thereto attached are sufficient to enable one designing a visit to the mines to select the most convenient route. A detailed description of each is not necessary here, since they have already been described, or at least the eastern portion of them, in former reports. The greatest interest attaches to the immediate approaches to the mines. Granting that it may be practicable to reach by rail the San Luis Valley from the east, and that it is from this direction that a railroad- route will be built, tapping the mines, the question of communication is narrowed to the practicability of attaining the mines from this valley. As far as possible, I caused profiles to be made of all approaches at present In use, or which seemed to me to offer possible routes, either for wagons or railroad, within the limits of the area assigned to me, the most important of which are hereto attached, with the grade per mile between the barometric stations computed. Although perhaps not sufficiently accurate for engineering purposes, they show the comparative value of the trails and roads surveyed, and may be sufficient data to save the expense on the part of those interested in such subjects of additional surveys for preliminary information. Along the first mentioned of these routes it is practicable to reach by a railroad the valley of the Gunnison River via the Cochetopa Pass, north of the new wagon- road. Aloug the course of the road, however, between Cochetopa Creek and the Lake Fork of the Gunnison, the grades ( as may be seen from the profiles) are too great for a railway. 1st. At the divide between the Cochetopa and Cebolla. 2d. Between the Ce-bolla and the Lake Fork of the Gunnison. South of this road, in the Gunnison drainage- area, there is no route as practicable as this. North of it the Cochetopa Canon and the ridge to the west of it offer formidable obstacles, and a road will thereby be forced to follow practically the route surveyed by Capt. J. W. Gunnison, topographical engineer, in 1853, and reported upon by Lieut. E. G. Beck with, Third United States Artillery, as far as to the Lake Fork of the Gunnison. Here, in endeavoring to reach Lake City, an amonnt of blasting and rock- excavation along the cation of this stream is greater than may be incurred, unless the products of the mines become so great as to justify the expense. So far it has not been considered advisable to gain, even at much less expense, good grades along the wagon- road above t h e narrowest part of the Lake Fork Canon. Following Gunnison's wagon- road, however, to the Uncompahgre, although from his report much cutting, filling, and blasting Trill be necessary, it will be more easy to attain by rail the new mining town of Ouray, in the Uncompahgre Park, below the gorge of that stream. From the west possibly t h e same point maybe reached by a road leaving the Utah Southern Railroad at Provo, i n the Provo Canon, or, better, perhaps, in the Sevier Valley, below Santaquin, and thence via Gunnison, Salt Creek, and the Wahsatch Pass, to the eastward. The difficulties along this route will be mainly in the plateau and cafion country of the Grand, Green, and Gunnison drain age- areas, " for which see Captain Gunnison's report. South o f the Wahsatch Pass there can be no rail- route from the west until south of the Grand Cafion of the Colorado. At best, then, the mines may be tapped by the northern route, if their products will ever demand it, at great expenditure of money and labor, by a round- about route through the Cochetopa or Wahsatch Pass. From Del Norte a road may be built with comparative ease along the canon of the Rio Grande, with a maximum grade of 60 feet to the mile, as far as to the mouth of Pole Creek, 13 miles from Baker's Park. From this point, however, to the summit of the range, the grade is on an average 300 feet to the mile; and from the summit to the Animas Valley at Ho wards ville the descent averages 900 feet per mile, and, near the summit, for l\ miles the fall is 1,300 feet per mile. This being a slope of 20° is not a practicable route for wagons, although there have been many wagons over it. From foel Norte to the mouth of Pole Creek the main expense will be in bridging the Rio Grande at frequent intervals to avoid cuts, in excavation between Antelope Park along t h e cation of the Rio Grande for 12 miles to the mouth of Lost Trail Creek, and again for several miles between Lost Trail and Pole Creeks, the slopes of the river being followed as nearly as practicable. For some distauce above the mouth of Pole Creek a road migbt be built, but for ordinary running the increased expense from additional power required on increased grades, the greater cost of construction, and the want of level space above this point for depot, & c, would not, perhaps, make this advisable. From the mouth of Pole Creek pack- animals are now, and will necessarily be, the only reliable meaus of transportation, unless, indeed, ( and this will sooner or later be done if mining industry in this section proves a success,) a tramway, or partially counterpoised railway worked by the weights of ascending and descending freights And by stationary steam- power, be built across the continental divide at the head of |
