Wasatch & Jordan Valley Railroad, Prospectus 1876

Wasatch. & Jordan Valley Railroad Co.

of Utah.

This Railway has a single track of eighteen miles. The road commences at Sandy, a station on the Utah Southern Railroad, twelve miles south of Salt Lake City, and runs east up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Alta City, in the vicinity of which are upwards of 5,000 located mines-among which are the celebrated Flagstaff, South Star, and Titus, Vallejo, Last Chance, Little Emma, Hiawatha, Highland Chief, Prince of Wales, Grizzley, Lavinia, Utah, Davenport, Reed & Benson, &c.

The road was built to Granite in 1972, a station ten miles from Sandy. From this station all the rock is shipped for the new Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, which is quite a source of revenue to the road, one that will increase each year; as the rock is of a very fine quality of granite for building purposes. The road changed hands in the summer of 1875, and the present owners pushed it on up the Canyon to Alta City, eight miles, completing it late in the fall of that year. Nine miles of snow shed have been constructed, at a cost of over $80,000, enabling the Company to operate this part of the road all winter. This road connects at Sandy with the Bingham Canyon & Camp Floyd Railroad, giving it direct communication with about thirty smelting furnaces located in that vicinity. Both roads are under the same management.

The capital stock, in shares of $100 each, is $500,000. The bonded debt consists of 355 gold bonds of $1,000 each, and amounting to $355,000. The bonds are dated May 1st 1873, having twenty years to run, with interest at 9 per cent. gold, payable semi-annually in New York, in November and May of each year. Two hundred thousand dollars of the bonds were sold by the Company previous to the panic of 1873, at par.

The Trustees of the Deed of Trust are Augustus Kountze, of Kountze Bros., 2 Wall Street, and William A. Hall, of Benedict, Hall & Co., Grand Street, New York.

The equipment consists of three mix-wheel locomotives, three passenger and two hundred and fifty freight cars, eighty horses and mules, sleighs, wagons, &c., &c. The line has four station houses. one engine house, repair shops, stables, boarding house, water tanks, track scales, &c., &c.; everything complete that is necessary for the business of the road.

This railway shows a regular monthly increase of earning, and, inasmuch as constant new discoveries are being made of mineral alongside the railway, and new mines being opened, this increase may be always calculated upon. Another fact deserves attention, viz : the discovery of good coking coal in Utah, within 150 miles of the smelting works, (see testimony of quality noted below). -At present the smelting operations in the district are carried on by using coke brought from Pennsylvania, over 2,000 miles, which averages about $30 per ton. The opening of the Utah Coking Coal Fields will enable coke to be obtained at from $6 to $10 per ton. The effect upon this railway will be therefore to largely increase its traffic, as thousands of tons of poor ore are not now sent to be smelted but dumped at the mines; now, the completion of this railroad reducing the cost of transportation over 50 per cent., and with cheap fuel, all these lean ores will be sent along 'the railway to be smelted along with richer ore.

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Salt Lake City, August 29th, 1876.

De Lacey Loucks, Esq., Secretary Utah Coal Mining And Coke Co.

Dear Sir:

I take great pleasure in reporting to you the success attending my practical test of the coke shipped me from the works of your Company. I used your coke exactly as I have been accustomed to use Connellsville, Pennsylvania coke, with the same charge of ore and flux, and with the same blast, and I am compelled to say that your coke is equally as good and answers all the purposes of lead smelting as the Pennsylvania coke,, and I heartily recommend your coke to all consumers.

Respectfully, yours,

G. Billing.

Per Franz Jungk, Germania Smelting Works.  

The following gentlemen have knowledge of the property, having been over the line:

Sidney Dillon, President Union Pacific Railroad.
Jay Gould, Director Union Pacific Railroad.
Jacob F. Wycoff, 128 Pearl Street, New York.
Charles T. Cromwell, 34 Liberty Street, New York.
John Mack, 363 Fifth Avenue, New York.
Joseph U. Orvis, 30 Pine Street, New York.
Charles E. Orvis, 30 Pine Street, New York.
H. J. Morse, Of Morse, Kimball & Co., Exchange Court, New York.
Thomas J. Tilney, 2 Nassau Street, New York.
Gen. J. T. Wilder, Chattanooga, Tenn.
G. D. Whittlesey, Cashier First National Bank, New London, Conn.
Henry J. Nazro, Boston, Mass.
Phineas E. Gay, (Boston, Mass.)
Walker Bros., Salt Lake City, Utah.
L. S. Hills, Cashier Deseret National Bank, Salt Lake City, Utah.
H. S. Eldredge, Salt Lake City.
Thomas R. Jones, Banker, Salt Lake City.
J. E. Dooley, Banker, Wells, Fargo & Co., Salt Lake City, Utah.
Joseph Pool, President Manufacturers' And Merchants' Bank, New York.