History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

758 COMMERCE AND COMMUNICATION.
Salt Lake City, the main object being to obtain
a supply of coal at cheaper rates than was charged for
fuel taken from the Wyoming mines of the Union
Pacific. The bill was vetoed by the governor; but in
1880 an effort was made to build the line by private
enterprise, among the subscribers being many who
could ill afford such a venture. Like others of the
Utah lines, it was thus commenced on a slender capi-
tal, but through the aid of wealthy stockholders in
the Ontario mine, it was completed as far as Park
City, a distance of twenty-five miles from Coalville.
Soon afterward a parallel branch, named the Echo
and Park City, was built by the Union Pacific, and in
1883 the control of the former, which was known as
the Utah Eastern, fell into the hands of the latter. 19
The Salt Lake and Western, fifty-seven miles in
length, and later a branch of the Union Pacific, was
built in 1874-5 from Lehi junction, a mile north of
Lehi City, to the Tintic mines. It was at first intended
to push the line through to California, tapping
some of the rich mining districts of Nevada; but this
project was abandoned. In 1883 it was used mainly
for hauling gold, silver, and iron ore. 20 The Utah and
Nevada, first named the Salt Lake, Sevier Valley, and
Pioche Railroad, was commenced in 1872, the intention
being to build the line through the mining and
agricultural lands of the Sevier Valley as far as Pioche,
in south-eastern Nevada. After some twenty miles
had been completed, work was abandoned in 1873, but
resumed later, and the road completed as far as Stockton,
in Tooele county, its terminus in 1883, at which
date it was also under control of the Union Pacific.
On account of the failure of the Pioche mines, and
for other reasons, there seems little prospect of the
original project being executed. The Sanpete Valley
Railroad, built in 1880, between Nephi, in Juab
19 S. L. C. Tribune, Dec. 28, 1879.
20 Williams' Pac. Tourist, 147; S. L. C. Tribune, Dec. 19, 1874; S. F.
Bulletin, July 6, 1881; Utah Gazetteer, 1884, p. 110.