“What, sir?”
“There is Evans Pass, gentlemen, in plain sight. First named Lone Tree Pass, then Sherman Pass, and finally changed to Evans Pass in honor of Mr. Evans himself, who was the chief engineer in the field party that surveyed it after I had described the landmarks to him. He found it by a lone tree at the foot. You may have noticed a lone pine, a short distance back. That was our landmark.”
“I don’t see why you call it a pass, general,” ventured Mr. Corwith.
“Well, it’s a pass because it gets the railroad over the high country. Nature seems to have made it especially for a trans-continental railroad. We are following the backbone of a long ridge which extends from the plains to the top of the Black Hills. These Black Hills don’t look to be so very difficult, but their flanks are so broken by ravines and steep slopes, that the grades and fills are impossible. This ridge is a natural divide with scarcely a break, and carries the road like an inclined trestle. We rise 2,000 feet in thirty-two miles; that gives us, according to Mr. Evans’ surveys, a maximum grade of ninety feet to a mile, and the Government allows us 116 feet to a mile, at a pinch.”
“You consider this the beginning of the base of the Rocky Mountains, do you, general?” queried Mr. Blickensderfer.
“Yes, sir. In fact, the base begins at Cheyenne, as you and Mr. Carter may determine from the table of altitudes prepared by the engineers. The rise is deceptive. It’s the only bit of good luck we’ve struck. Our engineers looked for two years, to find it.”
“The Government allows you $48,000 a mile, in building over the mountains, doesn’t it?” asked General Rawlins. “And you can build here almost as fast as on the plains.”
“Faster. But the allowance is $48,000 a mile for only the first 150 miles from the base of the mountains. After that we get $32,000 a mile for the distance to the base of the California mountains. On the plains, to this point, we’ve been allowed $16,000 a mile, and that nearly beat us. We’ve had to haul our ties and iron and timbers and supplies at ruinous expense. However, here we’re close in touch with the timbered mountains and we may be enabled to float our ties down the streams to points near the grades; this red decomposed granite under foot makes perfect ballast; many of the cuts will be in soft soil; and we’ll have good coal for the engines. Cheap fuel is an important item in railroading. The next engines to be sent out from the East will be coal-burners instead of wood-burners.”
Assuredly, Terry thought, there were a number of items to be planned for, when building a railroad line.
“So,” continued the general, “at $48,000 a mile, in such a country, we may be able to save a little money for the work ahead, where we’ll get only $32,000 a mile, mountains or no mountains. The Central Pacific had easier going, at the start. They began almost at once with $48,000 a mile, in the California foothills; but as they climb, they’ve found so much blasting and tunneling and bridging necessary, that their mountain money looks about as small to them as our plains money to us. It will be nip and tuck between us.”