FROM the first of
March, 1876, when the Pueblo and Arkansas Valley branch of the Santa Fe was finished to
Pueblo and opened, the affairs of the Rio Grande and the Santa Fe were almost inseparably
connected. While this amicable arrangement seemed, on the face of it, entirely
satisfactory, there was nevertheless a deep-seated feeling of jealousy that required
constant watchfulness. General Palmer felt that his standard gauge rival had entered the
field, not with the idea of stopping permanently at Pueblo, but to invade all the paying
territory of which that point was a natural gateway -the South Park, the upper Arkansas-,
the San Juan and Denver -a territory over which he and his associates asserted exclusive
jurisdiction, and it became his leading purpose to head off these projects by occupying
all points of advantage, particularly the mountain passes, as fast as the means of his
company would permit. The principal difference between them lay in the fact that the Santa
Fe had the longer purse. General Palmer, being heavily handicapped by debts, had the
greatest difficulty in acquiring means to fortify himself against the aggressions of his
formidable adversary.
In October, 1875, Palmer had, along with his construction operations, instigated extensive
surveys of the unchartered mountain regions that were alluring in their promise of
traffic. These surveys were continued while the litigation between the Rio Grande and the
Santa Fe, which will be mentioned later, for the possession of the Grand Canon of the
Arkansas was in progress. Surveys were made from Canon City following up the Arkansas to
Malta and Leadville; from Leadville over Fremont Pass to Kokomo; from South Arkansas, now
Salida, to Poncha thence over both Cochetopa and Marshall passes to Gunnison Valley; from
Canon City via Grape Creek, Texas Creek and Copper Gulch into Wet Mountain Valley; from
the mouth of Trout Creek via Trout Creek Pass into South Park; from Alamosa via Alamosa
Creek to Alamosa Summit; from Alamosa along t h e R i o Grande to Cunningham and Weminucha
Passes; from Alamosa south to Conejos, thence southward over a desolate mesa country
reaching the Rio Grande near the mouth of the Rio Chama, thence along the Rio Grande
through the Indian pueblos, Espanola and White Rock Canon to Albuquerque and Bowling
Green.
Early in 1879, surveys were made following the South Platte River over Trout Creek Pass to
Fairplay, from Alamosa west into the the heart of the San Juan country, including a route
from the Rio Grande following up South Fork, over the Rio de Los Animas, and still another
westward from Conejos in the general direction of the course of the Los Pinos via Cumbres
Pass into the upper drainage area of the Rio Chama. Engineering parties were later
concentrated on this last mentioned route in order to rapidly perfect and extend the final
location preparatory to construction and, despite the troubles which were surrounding his
enterprise, General Palmer never once lost sight of his Plan of territorial development.
The importance of the coal and iron developments, which he had realized from the first,
had consumed no little of his attentions from 1874, when he sent Dr. William A. Bell to
London to negotiate bonds of a coal company sufficient to push vigorously coal and iron
production and to start the erection of a steel works at Pueblo.
Thus, in 1879, the Colorado Coal & Iron Company was formed. The first directors were
William J. Palmer, Charles B. Lamborn, William A. Bell, Lyman K. Bass and Hanson A.
Risley. In 1880, the South Pueblo Iron Works having been erected, 284 tons of merchant bar
iron were produced. In 1881, 6,396 tons of pig iron were turned out and on April 12th of
the following year the first 30foot rail was rolled. This was the first rail to be rolled
in the United States up to that time and the event was hailed with great enthusiasm. In
that year more than 16,000 tons of rails for the railroad were rolled.
In 1884, General Palmer retired from the management of the Colorado Coal & Iron
Company and Henry E. Sprague became president. The year of 1884 was one of great
depression in Colorado. There was a great miner's strike from October, 1884, to February,
1885, and also railroad labor troubles.
The Leadville smelters were shut down. Low prices and business depression prevailed. Coal
production was the only exception, over half a million tons having been produced by
Palmer's company. This company continued to grow, despite the depression, until 1892, when
it consolidated with the Colorado Fuel Company, controlled by J. C. Osgood and others,
thus forming the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, which has since grown to such vast
dimensions. J. C. Osgood was its first president.
But, let us now proceed with the course of affairs which eventuated in a prolonged and
bitter strife between the Santa Fe and the Rio Grande; provoked some bloodshed, harassed
the courts for years and incited general disturbance among the people of Colorado.
IT was near the end of February, 1878,
that it became apparent to Palmer that the Santa Fe contemplated another move. He could
not learn in what direction this move was to be made, but strongly suspicioned that it was
to be toward Canon City, the western terminus of his completed lines. Palmer watched every
avenue closely and prepared to spring at the critical moment.
The last week in February he discovered the secret. The Santa Fe had plotted the capture
of Raton Pass. Hundreds of men and many teams had been gathered there with the utmost
speed and were pushed into the pass, which had been surveyed and previously occupied by
the Rio Grande. The two lines ran side by side. Naturally this move on the Santa Fe's part
created some consternation, and for a time there were open threats of an armed conflict
but none occurred.
By the first of March the Santa Fe forces completely occupied the ground in dispute and
refused to be unseated. The people of Trinidad, which was then a rough mining camp
composed mostly of Mexicans, gamblers and a rough frontier element, were hostile to the
Rio Grande, because Palmer and Hunt had avoided them and built a rival town at El Moro,
five miles distant, openly espoused the cause of its opponent and furnished it with men
and sinews of way.
In further pursuit of its purpose to unseat the Rio Grande's strategic possessions in the
matter of rights-of-way, the Santa Fe, under the forceful leadership of W. B. Strong, who
had been taken from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and made vice-president and
general manager of the Atchison company, the next advance was made in the direction of the
Grand Canon of the Arkansas River, the gateway, and the only practicable one, to the mines
of Park and Lake counties.
In April, the Santa Fe began grading a line from Pueblo toward Canon City, paralleling the
Arkansas Valley branch of the Rio Grande. They contemplated completing this line in thirty
days. The Atchison company had recuperated its finances -which at the time of entering
Colorado had been at the low ebb-and entered upon an extensive scheme of railway building.
Two and one-half million dollars had been provided by them for branches or feeders to the
main line in Colorado, and there was a report that their Arkansas Valley branch would be
extended to Denver. It was thus evident to Palmer that Strong intended paralleling his
lines into all of their most productive territory, and that he had fully resolved to wreck
the Rio Grande. The situation in Southern Colorado, near Trinidad, daily grew more tense,
as the forces of both companies were armed and arrayed against each other in deadly
hostility. But there was no fighting of any consequence between the two forces save a few
scraps between individuals, that only resulted in blackened optics and sore heads.
Then the Rio Grande, having possession of the telegraph lines, discovered the ulterior
designs of the Santa Fe by cleverly deciphering coded dispatches. These dispatches
revealed that they were about to make a sudden dash for the canon west of Canon City. On
April 19th, 1878, at an early hour in the morning a spirited scramble by Rio Grande forces
for precedence to this narrow gorge ensued.
Mr. Strong was at El Moro when he heard that the Rio Grande had discovered his plans and
were moving men toward the canon to cut him out. He instantly made application for a
special train to carry him to the spot, but General Palmer had seen to it that this
request would be refused, and it was, much to the fighting railroader's surprise. This was
one time that his power and dominance availed him naught.
BUT Strong was not a man who would lie
down when confronted by obstacles. Unable to get to the canon himself ahead of the Rio
Grande forces, he telegraphed one of his engineers, Win. R. Morley, who was at La Junta,
to take an engine and run with all speed to Pueblo, and from thence to outrun the Rio
Grande force to Canon City.
Morley obeyed, arriving in Pueblo at 3 o'clock on the morning of the 19th. There he asked
for a narrow gauge engine to rush him to Canon, but his request was denied. Unable to
procure a locomotive, this bold engineer secured a horse and struck out with whip and spur
for the mountains. The distance between Pueblo and Canon City is forty-five miles. The
horse was pushed to the utmost. He felt that he had to beat the Rio Grande forces, who
were being assembled in Pueblo for a dash by train to the gorge, at all costs. When within
a few miles of his goal the horse fell dead, and Morley was forced to run at top speed the
remainder of the way.
At Canon City he quickly gathered a force of one hundred and fifty men, and with them
rushed to the mouth of the canon, two miles west. When the Rio Grande force of one hundred
laborers arrived, half an hour later, they found Morley in full possession of the prized
pass.
It is said that Strong presented Morley a goldmounted Winchester rifle for this exploit.
This rifle subsequently caused his death, at Guyamas, Old Mexico, when he attempted to
remove it from an ambulance and it was accidentally discharged.
The Santa Fe now had possession of Raton Pass and the Grand Canon of the Arkansas.
Exciting telegrams flew thick and fast back and forth over the wires. Bodies of men were
moved from point to point with utmost speed. Both railroads had grading and fighting
forces in the canon.
The Santa Fe served out writs of injunction in the Canon City courts. Chief Engineer J. A.
McMurtrie and Treasurer R. F. Weitbrec, of the Rio Grande, were placed under arrest on
trumped-up charges.
This move brought on conflicts between the working forces. Engineers with gangs of graders
seized every available point in the narrow gorge below and above. Arrests were matters of
daily occurrence, but the Santa Fe appeared to have the advantage.
Attorneys on both sides were getting into action. Hon. Thomas Macon represented the Rio
Grande and Gilbert B. Reed the Santa Fe. On the 26th day of April, District Judge Henry
issued an injunction against the Santa Fe. The Rio Grande forces were then legally
authorized to work in the canon and they swooped down on the Santa Fe forces with a
vengeance, running them out of the canon. But this conflict was without bloodshed.
In the meantime, the Santa Fe held its advantages on the Raton Pass, and Morley had let
contracts for the continuation of its main trunk into New Mexico. They also carried the
question of prior rights in the canon of the Arkansas up to the United States Court before
Judge Hallett.
|
 The
Old Monarch, age 380 years, which stood between C and D Streets on South Union Avenue,
Pueblo, Colorado. Circumference, 28 feet; height, 88 feet. Cut down June 25, 1883.
Fourteen persons had been hanged from one of its branches. The first white woman who died
in Colorado was buried under Its branches. In 1850, there were 36 persons massacred near
this tree.
Pueblo Union Ave. bridge in 1886.
Pueblo Main Street c1920
Pueblo Steel Works c1870
Pueblo C. F. & I. Steel Works c1920
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