_The Denver-Cheyenne Line (Denver Pacific Railroad.)_
Proposition for Pacific Railroad to Reach Denver--Cheyenne Route
Selected--Branch Line Proposed--Denver Pacific Incorporated and
Built--Pro-Rata Controversy--Operated By Kansas Pacific--Consolidation
With the Union Pacific.
In the original plan for the Union Pacific Railroad it was the
intention that the line would run through Denver and from there
directly West across the mountains to Salt Lake. When the line was
finally located it passed through Cheyenne, leaving Denver some one
hundred miles to the South, the reasons for this being the much
shorter distance via Cheyenne as well as the decidedly better
gradients that were possible via South Pass Route as against the
routes via Denver and Berthoud or Evans Passes. The Denver Route was
only given up after repeated efforts had been made to find a
satisfactory line that way.
The City of Denver had for some time past been encountering a streak
of hard luck--Failure of some of its most promising mines in
1861--Division of the Citizens over the Civil War in 1862 and
1863--Fire and Flood followed by the Indian War on the plains in 1864
cutting off communication with the East--then the grasshoppers plague
with the diversion of the Pacific Railway. Vice President Durant had
made the remark "it's too dead to bury," and this it was that spurred
its citizens up.
In 1867 the Authorities of the Union Pacific Railroad offered to build
a branch from some point on their main line to Denver, provided the
citizens of that place would pay for the grading of the line and
furnish right of way and grounds for terminal. The citizens of Denver
were sore at being left to one side on the great overland route and
gave the proposition but a luke-warm reception. It is true, County
Commissioners of Arapahoe County, in which Denver is located, ordered
an election in August, 1867, to vote on the proposition of issuing two
hundred thousand dollars in bonds in favor of such a branch line. The
election resulted in an overwhelming majority in favor of it, eleven
hundred and sixty for to one hundred and fifty-seven against. The
County Commissioners in their negotiations with the Union Pacific
people coupled with the proposition certain conditions as to the route
which the branch line should follow, which not being satisfactory to
the Railroad people, they refused to accept the bonds on the
conditions required.
On November 13th, 1867, George Francis Train addressed a public
meeting at Denver on the subject of a connection between Denver and
the Union Pacific Railroad and as a result the Denver Pacific Railway
and Telegraph Company was organized five days later. On the day
following the organization the directors met and elected Bela M.
Hughes President, D. H. Moffat, Treasurer, and F. M. Case, Chief
Engineer,--one fourth of the necessary funds being subscribed. An
arrangement was made with the Union Pacific Railroad Company by the
terms of which that Company was to complete the road as soon as it was
ready for the rails. In other words the road was to be located,
graded, and tied by the Denver Pacific Company, and ironed and
equipped by the Union Pacific Railroad Company.
In connection with the Denver Pacific proposition an application was
made to Congress for a land grant to assist in the construction of the
road, but before this was acted upon the Kansas Pacific Railroad
Company had agreed to transfer the land grant which they had been
given by Congress so far as it applied to their proposed line from
Denver North, and the application of the Denver Pacific Railroad to
Congress was consequently changed to one for bonds. This was granted
in 1869 to the amount of twenty-four thousand dollars per mile, or two
and a half million dollars in all.
The grading was commenced May 18th, 1868, and the same fall was
completed to Cheyenne, one hundred and six miles. Owing to the delay
of Congress in acting on the bond proposition as well as on account of
the financial stringency the Union Pacific Railroad Company was then
encountering, the latter was not able to carry out its contract in
regard to the completion of the Denver Pacific Railroad, and the
arrangement was accordingly cancelled. An arrangement was then entered
into with the Kansas Pacific Railway by which the latter Company took
a certain amount of stock in the Denver Pacific Railroad and proceeded
with its construction, completing the line between Cheyenne and Denver
on June 22nd, 1870.
There was great rejoicing over the event. The last spike,--one of
solid silver contributed by the miners of Georgetown, Colo.,--was
driven by Governor Evans of Colorado.
The first engine to enter Denver was the first engine that the Union
Pacific Railroad owned. It had been the first to enter Cheyenne, also
the first into Ogden.
In 1872 the road passed into the control of the Kansas Pacific Railway
Company by purchase who operated it until the consolidation of both
lines with the Union Pacific Railroad Company in 1880.
The Kansas Pacific Railway was completed into Denver in August 1870,
and immediately embarked in the through trans-continental traffic from
Kansas City and points east thereof, via Denver and the Denver
Pacific Railroad. This was, of course, in competition with the Main
Line of the Union Pacific Railroad who in accepting business at
Cheyenne were losing the haul from Omaha to that point. The Kansas
Pacific Railway and the Denver Pacific Railroad people were insistent
and with no little degree of correctness that under the original
Charter the Union Pacific Railroad was compelled to accept business
from all connections,--but the terms thereof were not fixed and
instead of accepting a division based on the mileage of the respective
lines as insisted upon by the two lines named, the Union Pacific
Railroad officials demanded a constructive mileage that would result
in their line from Cheyenne to Ogden receiving six tenths of their
local rates between those points when the business was competition
with their long haul via Omaha. An agreement to work on this basis
pending judicial decision was made between the two interests in
September 1874. The question would not down, it was brought before
Congress, Courts, and Arbitrators constituting a "Cause Celebre" the
Pro-rata controversy.
Out of this grew the building of a rival line between Denver and
Cheyenne wholly under the Union Pacific Railroad's control--locally
known as the Colorado Central Railroad. This line was comprised of the
Colorado Central Railroad, Denver to Golden, sixteen miles. It was
commenced on New Year's Day 1868, being the first railroad in the
state of Colorado. Its extension to Longmont, built in 1871, and the
line Longmont to Cheyenne completed in 1877. This line was some one
hundred and thirty miles against one hundred and six by the Denver
Pacific Railroad, notwithstanding which it was used by the Union
Pacific Railroad as its Denver connection until the adjustment of the
differences between the different interests, which was brought about
by an agreement made June 1st, 1878, by which the Kansas Pacific
Railway and the Denver Pacific Railway were to be operated by the
Union Pacific Company. This was followed by an absolute merger of the
three roads, in January 1880 the new combination being known as the
Union Pacific Railway Company.