Money paid in for the railroad to Encampment

Reprint of this story from the September 29, 1905 issue of The Grand Encampment Herald brought to you courtesy of Grandma’s Cabin, Encampment, Wyoming. Preserving History - Serving the Community.

MONEY PAID IN FOR THE RAILROAD

TO ENCAMPMENT

The money for the construction of the new railroad from Encampment to Walcott is now in the hands of the Saratoga and Encampment Railway Company.

President Chatterton has been in Omaha this week negotiating with Kilpatrick Bros. & Collins, prominent railroad builders and contractors, to let a contract for the construction of this road.

Chief engineer Frank J. Cramer was in town Tuesday getting additional survey maps and has gone back to Nevada to bring his family here. He states that while November first is set as the latest date for work to begin it is understood that it is to be started as quickly as possible and he expects that operations will be in progress in two or three weeks. Nothing but an unusually severe winter will prevent the completion of the road long before April first, the latest date at which trains must be running into Encampment.

The Saratoga and Encampment Railway Company is incorporated for $1,000,000. The total cost of the road, including rolling stock and all necessary equipment, is expected not to exceed $750,000.

The road will be built without issuing any bonds, sufficient stock having been subscribed for to build and equip the line complete.

The successful financing of this proposition is due principally to the efforts of Hon. Fenimore Chatterton, present secretary of state and ex-governor of Wyoming. For eight months he has been devoting his energies to the work of interesting capitalists in building a railroad to Encampment, and the result has been brought about almost entirely through his personal efforts.

The building of the railroad from Walcott to Encampment will be more far reaching in the resulting benefits to the state than any similar project that has ever been undertaken. It will make possible the rapid and profitable development of this great mineral district so that it may soon rank as one of the richest copper producing districts in America. It will be the forerunner of big canal and irrigation schemes that will bring under cultivation thousands of acres of fertile soil in the adjacent valleys of the Platte and Encampment rivers. There will be the combined riches of agriculture and mining to make this one of the most populous and prosperous sections of Wyoming, or any other western state.

The greatest boom and the greatest addition to the wealth and population of the state that Wyoming has ever known will follow the railroad into Encampment.

Railroad News Effects City Real Estate

Local real estate interests already feel the effect of the railroad assurances. For the first time in many months a number of sales in Encampment real estate have taken place within the past week.

The most important of these transactions is the purchase of the Geo. Plummer residence property by Geo. Kuntzman. This is one of the better class of residences in the town and was purchased by Mr. Kuntzman solely as an investment. Alderman Plummer is now a resident of Riverside.

A number of vacant lots have been bought during the week by parties who expect to build on them in anticipation of the boom that will follow the railroad in the spring.

A Breach of Promise Case

Young Frank Brewer is promised a nice little bunch of trouble at the beginning of his marital joys. He is the lad - a son of J.C. Brewer, a prominent ranchman - who was engaged to marry Miss Maude Thompson of this place, and who disappeared on the day set for their wedding and married another girl in Cheyenne. It is now stated that Miss Thompson will sue the young man for breach of promise and also that criminal proceedings are to be brought against him it being alleged that he committed perjury by swearing falsely regarding his age when securing a license.