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 In December 1869, nine months before the Kansas Pacific Railroad (later to become the Union Pacific) was completed into Denver, a party of Pueblo businessmen mapped and located a wagon road from Pueblo to Kit Carson. The Denver Pacific was completed into Denver in June 1870, but the Pueblo men continued to deal with outfitters at Kit Carson and to freight their supplies from that point. They urged the Kansas Pacific to build a railroad to Pueblo.
The plan to extend the K P to Pueblo represented a revision of an earlier Colorado and New Mexico Railway Company's intention of 1870 to build two lines in extension of the K P track westward from Kit Carson. One line was to go via Fort Lyon and Animas City (Las Animas) in Bent County to Albuquerque; the other, a branch called the Arkansas Valley Railway, was to run to Pueblo from Fort Lyon.
In August 1870, chief engineer William H. Greenwood directed an engineering party on a survey for a branch line from Kit Carson to Fort Lyon, with Pueblo as the ultimate objective. In March 1871, President Robert E. Carr gave the people of Pueblo some encouragement, suggesting that if they could extend financial aid, he would build the line from Kit Carson. Apparently, Carr and others felt the financial aid was forthcoming, for in August 1872, ground was broken for the 51-mile extension to Fort Lyon. In September 1872, the Arkansas Valley Railway Company filed incorporation papers, announcing its intention to build a railroad and telegraph line.
Route described
The route would be: "Commencing at a point on, and intersecting with, the Kansas Pacific Railway at or near Kit Carson, in the county of Greenwood (now Cheyenne County), and territory of Colorado, thence in a southerly direction through the counties of Greenwood and Bent to the valley of the Arkansas River in Bent County at or near Fort Lyon, thence in a westerly and northwesterly general direction and along said valley, or the slopes thereof, of the Arkansas River, by such route or routes on either side of said river as may be deemed most advantageous or practicable through the counties of Bent and Pueblo."
This was relatively new territory. There were no stations along the route, merely wood and water stops, and the only permanent inhabitants were herds of cattle.
Trustees of the new Arkansas Valley Railway Company were Kansas Pacific men, for the most part, including Robert E. Carr, president; Charles B. Lamborn, secretary; Henry C. Thatcher; Wilbur F. Stone; George A. Hinsdale; Benjamin W. Lewis Jr.; Adolphus Meier; Carlos S. Greeley; and Edmund S. Bower.
The incorporation papers listed capital stock of the Arkansas Valley Railway Company as $3 million (30,000 shares at $100 a share). However, the construction to Las Animas was financed by a bond issue of more than $1 million, and by an issue of capital stock somewhat over that amount. But the stock had only a token value. At the time of the consolidation in January 1880, the Kansas Pacific accounts carried 10,682 shares of Arkansas Valley stock at one cent per share, $106.82.
Account shows loss
Its construction account showed a balance for advances to the Arkansas Valley of $258,899.65, on open account, representing loss in construction and operation of the Arkansas Valley road. The construction account of March 31, 1877 showed a total expenditure of $1,116,261.50, and subscriptions of $750,000. The $1,035,000 of Arkansas Valley bonds owned by the Kansas Pacific were carried as an asset under the consolidated mortgage of 1879, notwithstanding the fact that the road had been abandoned in 1877.
The line was constructed to Las Animas in 1873, a distance of about 76 miles. Construction was in the charge of engineer Leonard Eicholtz.
The Union Pacific Magazine of April 1926 contains an article by C. L. Hanna, an old-time railroad man formerly in the service of the Arkansas Valley.
"The annual cattle rush each autumn furnished big business for the Las Animas branch," Hanna wrote. "To move out the great herds before winter set in, everything with wheels under it was pressed into service. A box car was just as good as a stock car, and so were coal and flat cars after temporary racks had been added.
"The Las Animas branch was built...to care for the great volume of traffic destined to New Mexico, Arizona and the southwest generally. At that time, La Junta was the great southwest supply base. The Santa Fe, while building, had only reached as far west as Granada. There being no other line into La Junta, the Las Animas branch did a rushing business.
"One had only to spend a few days at La Junta, twice a year, when hundreds of bull teams from Belen, Socorro, Santa Fe and dozens of other towns in the southwest, pulled out with supplies to last for six months, to understand how much traffic passed over that branch. Wore many hats
"In 1877, I came to Denver and Colonel C. W. Fisher employed me as a brakeman," Hanna related. "In July, I went to the Arkansas Valley Railroad.... My title was brakeman on the mixed train, but I was also baggage man and express messenger, and handled all pouch mail.
"My conductor, the late D. B. Keeler, was also the agent at Las Animas where the train tied up for the night. When Keeler left the terminal as conductor, he figuratively took his agency with him. The ticket case, stamp, and agent's cap went into the baggage car and I herded the passengers in to purchase tickets. When Agent Keeler finished selling tickets, he discarded the agent's cap for the one proclaiming him conductor, and then went through the train collecting the tickets he had just sold."
Pueblo residents were asked to vote $200,000 in bonds to bring the Kansas Pacific on into the city, a move which decided the Santa Fe to make a similar proposal. For reasons known to themselves, the county commissioners reversed the proposals, submitting the Santa Fe request to the voters first and postponing a vote on the Kansas Pacific proposal.
Kansas Pacific protests did not prevail, and in January, 1873, Pueblo voters approved $200,000 for the Santa Fe, and in February, Trinidad voters approved $250,000 to bring the Santa Fe to town.
Kansas Pacific responded by canceling all construction contracts west of Las Animas.
Though more money was needed to build the Santa Fe line. Bent County voters killed a bond issue in December, 1874 by a vote of 200 to 19. Thomas Nickerson of Boston, Santa Fe president, informed Bent County that, without the bonds, the railroad would not be built from Granada to Las Animas. The feeling in Pueblo was that if Bent County would not vote the bonds, the Pueblo-financed line would connect with the Kansas Pacific at West Las Animas. In other words, Pueblo freight would go to West Las Animas, then to Kit Carson and on to points east.
Rumors abounded, including tales that the Kansas Pacific intended to build a new line from River Bend to Colorado Springs, Canon City and southwest. The story said the Kit Carson to Las Animas line would be abandoned, with the track removed to construct the new line.
In fact, Kansas Pacific renewed its efforts to complete a line to Pueblo. The Santa Fe wasn't out of the picture, however. In a second election in Bent County, a bond issue of $150,000 was approved for the Santa Fe and a race was on.
In 1875, the line's extension to Pueblo was considered as a joint project of the Kansas Pacific and the Union Pacific. President Sidney Dillon of the Union Pacific conferred with Carr on the subject, and had an estimated cost for the extension of about $8,000 per mile, using 50-pound rail.
Dillon telegraphed Oliver Ames on April 23,1875: "See Nickerson (of the Santa Fe) and tell him that we intend to build the line from Las Animas to Pueblo as proposed by Kansas Pacific," and on June 12 of that year, Dillon wrote vice-president Elisha Atkins and Oliver Ames: "In the negotiations with the Kansas Pacific people for the building of the Arkansas Valley R.R., it was agreed that the Union Pacific people should pay one-half of the expense and the Kansas Pacific interest the other half. I enclose statement of approximate cost per mile, being $7,713.90 per mile of which about one-half is for iron...."
By May 20,1875, the Kansas Pacific had 20 miles of road westward from West Las Animas under contract. A large force of men was at work and cars soon would run to Timpas Creek (La Junta) where a station would be located. By late May, both companies were grading side by side seven or eight miles west of Las Animas. The Santa Fe had 250 teams at work, and rumors still filled the air, including one that the KP was trying to scare its competitor off the track.
The Santa Fe extension from Granada west was called the Pueblo and Arkansas Valley, or the Pueblo and Salt Lake line. In June, the Kansas Pacific and Pueblo and Salt Lake crews were running a double set of tracks, parallel with each other. Work was hampered during the summer months by a lack of railroad ties, which were floated down the Arkansas River from California Gulch for both lines. First, the tie drive was scattered by a major flood, then after the cleanup, the contractor held up the ties for payment of debts.
Also during this time, Judge Moses Hallett ruled against the Kansas Pacific, which had sought an injunction against the Pueblo and Salt Lake; the judge held that the KP did not establish prior claim when it laid out stakes in 1872 or 1873.
West Las Animas fared well during this period, however, with four passenger trains arriving daily on both lines. The town was crowded and visitors stood in line for meals.
Further discussions
The following letter of August 5,1875, Dillon to Carr, indicates further discussions with the Santa Fe people:
"I have had a meeting with the Nickersons and although they seem disposed to talk over the matter, we accomplished nothing as yet. We are to have another meeting soon, and after that takes place, I will inform you of the result. If nothing can be done with them, I would advise the laying of the iron that we have on hand and then stop until they get near Pueblo, when I would strike off to Trinidad. If these are your views, please keep them to yourself as if they should find out they might change their policy."
The available records do not disclose the outcome of Dillon's and Ames' discussions with the Nickersons, in Boston, but it would appear they confirmed the intention of the Santa Fe to build up the Arkansas River to Pueblo, and in consequence, the Union Pacific-Kansas Pacific scheme to extend the Arkansas Valley road from Las Animas to Pueblo was ultimately abandoned. The Kansas Pacific never did reach Pueblo. The Santa Fe's Pueblo and Salt Lake line did, though, arriving February 27, 1876.
The Arkansas Valley line from Kit Carson to Las Animas was short-lived. The Santa Fe "pulled the right strings" and got the line into Pueblo, providing a shorter route. The Santa Fe, therefore, got the business. By the spring of 1877, the Kansas Pacific's business on the Arkansas Valley line was slowing down, and was especially light at La Junta. A summer card was adopted so that the train would make three trips weekly from La Junta to Kit Carson and return. On April 4, 1877, the La Junta post office was discontinued, and a few days later, the Kansas Pacific was no longer running trains between Las Animas and La Junta.
The announcement was made that after October 11,1877, the trains on the KP from Kit Carson to Las Animas would be discontinued, as well as the road had been nonpaying since the advent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. Later in the fall, however, daily trains continued briefly, in response to pleas from cattlemen. After the cattle were moved out in the fall of 1877, though, the Kit Carson to Las Animas line was abandoned, and the track was the first to be dismantled in Colorado.
In May, 1878, the Las Animas branch was sold at public auction for $50,000 to John D. Perry, representing the Kansas Pacific. The rails were taken up and later used on the Solomon branch.
Papers of the Arkansas Valley Railroad Company of 1906, formed to serve irrigated lands along the river, indicate that it fell heir to the remaining properties of this line, unused for two decades.
Materials for this story came from Bailey's First Transcontinental Railroad, and General William J. Palmer, by George L. Anderson, both researched by the Union Pacific; from Railroads and the Rockies, by Robert M. Ormes; from The First Five Years of the Railroad Era in Colorado, by E. O. Davis; from "Pueblo: Railroad Hub," by Eleanor Fry (published in Pueblo Lore, February, 1987); from the October, 1936 Colorado College publication's "General William J. Palmer: A Decade of Colorado Railroad Building 1870-1880," by George L. Anderson; from the Arkansas Valley Railroad Company incorporation papers, maintained by the Colorado State Archives; and from data reprinted in The Colorado Prospector.
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