The Pacific Short Line

Chicago - August 26

The Pacific Short Line will be offered for sale at public auction next Tuesday under foreclosure proceedings by order of the United States Circuit Court.  It is expected that there will be a sharp contest for the possession of the property, as several companies are known to have had a covetous eye on it for some time and will make the most of this opportunity to secure it.  Among the bidders, it is understood, will be the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, Chicago & North Western, and the Illinois Central Company, besides syndicates of the original bond holders.

In railroad circles much interest has been manifested in the Pacific Short Line project from the first.  It was originally an Illinois Central scheme, but was abandoned by that company and afterward taken up by the Wyoming Improvement Company.  The intention was to build a line from Sioux City to Ogden, paralleling the Union Pacific and shortening the distance by several hundred miles from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast.  Sioux City men added $1,000,000 to the amount that was put into the enterprise be Eastern capitalists.  The whole line was surveyed and laid out, three different companies were incorporated, and 130 miles of the road, between Sioux City and O'Neill, Neb, were constructed and put into operation.

The enterprise looked promising enough, until the financial panic of last Fall, after which the outlook was changed.  Jay Gould had gobbled the Union Pacific and was understood to be hand in glove with Huntington, who controls the Central Pacific.  The latter road, which is the only outlet from Ogden to the Pacific coast, was in hostile hands and the Pacific Short Line people decided that it would be folly to complete their line under such circumstances.  The property was allowed to go into the hands of a receiver and is now to be sold by order of the court.  The Illinois Central is said to be anxious to get possession of the road and thereby gain access to the Black Hills territory.

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NY Times 8/27/1891

Invading New Territory - The Illinois Central said to be backing up a Wyoming Line

Chicago, Aug 20. - The following is published here: "Recent movements tend to confirm the belief that the Illinois Central will not only invade Nebraska, but also Wyoming and possibly Colorado.  The objective point will be either Ogden or Denver, with the chances in favor of the former.  Articles of incorporation of the Wyoming and Eastern Railroad Company have recently been filed with the Secretary of the Territory at Cheyenne.  The Illinois Central is believed to be baking this enterprise.  The capital stock is $10,000,000 and the length of the road to be built in the territory is 425 miles.  The initial point of the new road is at or near Twin Creek, on the southwestern boundary of Utah and Wyoming, where it is to connect with another road to Ogden and Salt Lake City.  The route designated is easterly and northeasterly through the Valley of Horn Fork, the South Pass, the Sweetwater and North Platte Valleys to the Nebraska boundary. 

"Between the main lines of the Elkhorn Valley (Northwestern) and Union Pacific is a cast unoccupied stretch of country, the productive wealth of which has scarcely been touched.  The eastern counties are well settled and support hundreds of thriving communities, while the central and western counties are in the infancy of development.  They have been retarded by lack of facilities for reaching markets.  Crossing the river at Onawa the route indicated to the mountains would be almost an air line and would lead rivals lines a lively race for overland traffic.  The western terminal of the Illinois Central's Iowa lines is at Sioux City, and the proposition to extend the line from that point to the Rocky Mountains has been entertained for several years past, as it is the only means by which the Iowa lines of the Illinois Central can be made profitable.

----- NY Times  8/21/1888

Sioux City to Salt Lake

Chicago, Nov 3. - The proposed railway from Salt Lake City to Sioux City, IA, is now spoken of as an assured enterprise, with a syndicate behind it which proposes to complete the entire line within the next two years.  The line is divided into three corporations, known as the Salt Lake Valley Eastern, the Wyoming & Eastern, and the Nebraska & Western Railway Companies.  When these companies were incorporated a good deal of gossip was indulged in concerning the probable relations of the project to one of the big western systems.  The report that was generally accepted as the most plausible, and which was industriously circulated until an offical denial choked its career was one placing the responsibility on the Illinois Central people and designating the proposed railway as an extension of the Illinois Central line from Sioux City across to Nebraska to the Wyoming foal fields and probably to Denver.  It is now understood that the project road isnot connected with any of the great railway companies but is an independent line, to be constructed and operated with the idea of exchanging business with all other companies on an equal basis.  Construction has commenced on the Salt Lake Valley & Eastern Division.

NY Time   Nov 4, 1888