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Show 308 Cunningham Gulcb. Such a line of railway in connection with this tramway seems to me to be, from its less probable cost and near approach to the various mining districts, to be the project most likely to be remunerative. At Antelope Park it would pass within 30 miles of the mines on the Lake Fork of the Gunnison, and would also be the outlet of the mining region about the headwaters of the Unoompahgre. From the south the most promising route to examine for a railroad route seems to be that via the valley of the Chama to Abiquiu; thence to Canon Largo, thence to the San Juan River, thence via its canon and that of the Animas to Animas Park, 40 miles south from the Baker's Park mines. Above this point the Animas flows in a narrow cation for some 11 miles from Cascade Creek, which does not seem to offer a very promising route, and the benchlike valley along the west side of the Animas can only be attained by a road with gradients of 300 feet per mile. Above the mouth of Cascade Creek practicable gradients may be secured by blasting along the sides of the Animas Cafion and the road carried into Baker's Park. Such a route at best, like the northern one, must be, from the nature of the mountains and mesas of the San Juan area, very tortuous aud expensive in its construction, and, for a railroad, with steep gradients at many points. If the Denver and Rio Grande Railway should succeed in entering the valley of the Rio Grande above Taos, a branch route to the mouth of Pole Creek would certainly be the most advantageous line to secure the freights of the mining district. If the Thirty-fifth Parallel route be ever completed, the communications with the south may, perhaps, be simplified, since the drainage lines of the San Juan River being all in approximately north and south directions, may offer practicable gradients for a branch railroad along lines not interrupted by vertical walls or deep canons. Beyond the freights of the mining- camp of the La Plata range, and the possibility of reaching the mines of the upper Animas by way of the canon of that stream, there does not seem to be anything to induce the construction of more than a good wagon- route along or near the southern route. In the valley of the Gunnison and Grand and Green Rivers it is different. This is one of the main possible, but at the same time one of the most difficult, of the transcontinental routes. There are here extensive agricultural areas and fields of coal, mines on both the northern and southern tributaries of the Gunnison, and prospective communication with the rich mines of Utah and Nevada. A road in this area, next to that via the Rio Grande Cafion, offers to be soonest remunerative, and would probably always be a link of through and extended communication, which the Rio Grande branch can never become. In the immediate vicinity of the mines, and across the rim of the upper Animas Basin, the following trails and roads exist: 1st. Road via Cinnamon Gulch Pass to the Lake Fork of the Gunnison. This will be extended through the oafion of the Animas from La Plata, at the forks of the Animas, to Eureka and Howardsville. 2d. From Howardsville, in Baker's Park, over the continental divide at the head of the Rio Grande to Del Norte. 3d. From the Animas Fork over head of Animas River to Mineral City, on the headwaters of the Uncompahgre. 4th. Trails east and west of Sultan Mountain to the Animas Park. 5th. Trail over south fork of Mineral Creek to the San Miguel and Dolores. 6th. Trails over Mineral and Crescent Creeks to Red Mountain Valley, on Uncotopah-gre waters. Profiles are given herewith of the mountain parts of the first, second, fourth, and fifth. Taken in connection with the fact that the gorge of the Uncompahgre below the mines may for the present be regarded as impassable, the problem of access to and egress from the mines of the Animas and Uncompahgre districts is a difficult one. Nowhere is this rim crossed by trail or road leading outward from the mountains with a grade of less than 800 feet to the mile, which means practically no wagon transportation at cheap rates. Of the existing roads, the Lake Fork route is the best, but this is too steep for free use. The canon of the Animas offers to those districts the only possible route with good grades for wagons, and this is rock- bound; but it may be imperative if the mines are productive, even if the stationary steam- power line be put across the divide, to get an outlet by way of this cafion at the expense of blasting a road- bed in the flint- like sides of the cafion walls. In other words, the mining districts about the heads of the Animas and Uncompahgre must look for facile wagon communication to the south, or else to the northwest via the Uncompahgre gorge, which is equally rock- bound and of three times as steep gradients. Besides the existing routes of communication for wagons, of which the Saguache and Lake City, and the Del Norte, Antelope Park, and Lake City roads only are available, it seems to me advisable on the part of the people of Cafion City and Colorado Springs to examine the following route for a wagon- road: From the point the Puncho Pass and South Arkansas toll- road leaves Puncho Creek, the proposed line passes over the divide at the head of this stream to the Tumicbi |