Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1917 — TAPS RICHTRACT [ARTICLE]

TAPS RICHTRACT

RAILROAD EXTENSION IN OREGON OF IMPORTANCE. ■■ ' «• ______ ' ll Presented Big Problem for Engineers and Cost Much Money, but Will Open Up Immense Reserves . of Timber.

Norailroad development in the Northwest in the last decade has opened up greater possibilities for the rapid development of that part of the state than the recent completion of a $13,000,000 extension into the Coos Bay country of southwestern Oregon. Here was an isolated section of Pacific coast territory, possessing a harbor that may some day rival that of San Francisco, and tapping a land rich in timber, “mtnerals, and farm lands, some 400 miles south of Portland. Up to the time that this extension was opened, it has been completely shut off from railroad connection with the rest of the world and was reachable only by sea, or by a difficult overland route through mountainous country by stage from a point oh the main line of the railroad into California.

Despite these handicaps, the towns of Marshfield and North Bend, occupying positions similar to San Franeiseo on San Francisco bay, grew rapidly in population and prosperity. Thick forests of huge timber in adjacent forest lands made lumbering the chief industry of the bay, with gigantic sawmills convenient to the water. Then there was the pulp business, which in these days of European war has taken on a new importance, undone of the largest mills in the West located itself on the bay. Congress appropriated nearly SBOO,OOO to the improvement of the bay channel. . The agricultural resources of the country, comprising as it did vast given over to many different crops, attracted attention.

So promising was this great territory that the railroad company, the Southern Pacific, decided to stretch its lines to the bay and end the isolation that had existed for so many years. With a big problem before them, the railroad construction engineers decided to build a spur from the main line at Eugene, although the distance by the “line of least resistance”~was at least 120 miles and the mountainous territory brought back recollections of the building of the old Central Pacific nearly half a century ago in the early days of the West. There were many rivers to be crossed, mountains to be penetrated, and uncertain, marshy ground to be filled in or trestled.

But modern railroad engineering -balks at nothing,_eyen removing mountains when necessary. OwingTo the lay of the land, the surveyors and engineers decided that the easiest way was to run the spur directly west from Eugene to about 50- miles and turn southwest, gradually approaching the coast and nearly reaching it at Coos Bay. There were the Suislaw und Umpqua rivers and the bay itself to cross, but that could not be avoided. The construction of the line was started The result of this work is now apparent and the Coos Bay extension was officially opened last August. The exact distance between Eugene and Marshfield by rail is 121.6 miles. To construct the new extension, it was

necessary to build many tunnels and bridges, besides the roadbed. In fact, the total length of the nine tunnels is 13,925 feet, while the total steel used in 31 bridges required was 3,134 feet. Five and one-half miles of trestles -were built, while the other, supplies used included 18,000 tons of track steel. 9.100 tons of bridge Steel, 40,000 yards of concrete, 50.000 barrels of cement, Uhd 20,000,000 feet of Oregon hr tjinbaß*"-'-.,'. - ~ The time required for the trip between Portland and the Coos Bay country was cut down perceptibly by the extension. Another significant feature of the extension is that of the* freight movement. Heretofore it was possible to send a car from Corvallis, in the same state, to New York in the same time that it took a San Francisco or Portland shipper to get his consignments into Coos Bay. Now Coos Bay receives its freight in two days. Perhaps the. most interesting fact about the new country, which is h third larger than the state qf Rhode Island, is the Immense timber reserve it opens up-to the rest of the country. There artvapproxltnately 21,000.000,000 feet standing, the larger part of it privately owned. It is chiefly fir , and spruce, tremendous in height and girth, and characteristic of the wonderful timber .resources so abundant Jn-.that of the country jf-’Popu-lar Mechanics Magazine.