Reprint of this story from the January 22, 1904 issue of The Grand Encampment Herald brought to you courtesy of Grandma’s Cabin, Encampment, Wyoming. Preserving History - Serving the Community.
FROM LARAMIE
TO ENCAMPMENT
Building of “Copper Belt Route” to Encampment Assured
The Laramie Hahn’s Peak & Pacific railway, or “The Copper Belt Route” will be built from Laramie to Grand Encampment, crossing a variety of scenic country rarely surpassed in a trip around the world and tapping a virgin territory of diversified resources of great promise - “a land flowing with milk and honey,” where wide stretching plains and far reaching ranges support a wealth of cattle on a thousand hills and mesas; where snowcapped mountains wrapped in mystery hold a charm to anxious hosts of explorers; where the sportsman shall find his long-looked-for paradise, a land of deer and wild game, the home of the world’s famous rainbow trout; while the wilderness of the North Platte canyon will add a weird enchantment to the trip to the mines.
The Copper Belt Route will cross the plains for thirty miles to Centennial, to which point the grading has been completed. From there it will climb the Wyoming Snowy Range, or the Medicine Bow mountains, reaching an altitude of 9,204 feet above sea level, and will cross that mammoth range over a route which will afford a panoramic picture of nature with a radius of nearly seventy-five miles in every direction.
From the highest point on the Copper Belt Line, six mountain ranges will be in view — the Wyoming Black Hills beyond Laramie on the east, the Colorado Snowy Range on the south, the Rabbit Ears mountains on the southwest, the Sierra Madre or Continental Divide range on the west, the Ferris and the Seminole mountains to the north. The beauty of seven great chains of pine clad and snowcapped hills, in the midst of one of the greatest with six others spread out majestically to the four winds, will be the sight which will prompt many travelers to term it the western wonderland route.
The North Platte valley, as seen from a mountain top is in many ways a winsome sight. It is wild in spots and rich elsewhere in agriculture and cozy ranch homes. Its dimensions are grand, and it abounds in a variety of attractive features. The North Platte canyon, above which the new railroad will run perhaps 225 feet, is a rare specimen of the impassable in Wyoming. It is scarcely fit for a horse trail, while the use of the wagon is entirely out of the question. This portion of the Platte is little known on this account.
The Copper Belt Route will cross the Medicine Bow at Dry Park, north of Lake Mountain, following down Lake Creek to a point where that stream empties into Douglas Creek; thence down Douglas Creek to the North Platte; down the North Platte eight miles to a point two miles south of Jackson Brown’s toll bridge where a new bridge will be built. The route then lies over the pass between the North Platte and Beaver Creek, thence to the city of Grand Encampment. The entire distance from Laramie is said to be less than 100 miles.
The new road will bring Pearl, Holmes and Downington in close touch with Grand Encampment. A wagon road down Big Creek will place Pearl only a few miles from a railroad station and thus afford an outlet for ores which may be shipped from that section.
PERMANENT SURVEY
FINISHED
The permanent survey has reached the city of Grand Encampment, and the line was finished yesterday. Engineer C. L. Mitton, who has charge of the survey, expects to leave with his crew tomorrow for Laramie.
On account of the steep grade from the valley up to the smelter, the route selected will require a circuit of one and one-half miles to gain a straightaway distance of 1,200 feet. The line strikes the Encampment river about 200 yards below the smelter, follows the stream to Riverside and circles back through the ground reserved by the town site company for railroad purposes and on to the smelter.
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