☛ Railroad to the Pacific – The Grand Trunk May 4, 1854

Sarnia Observer and Western Advertiser
May 4, 1854

Railroad to the Pacific – The Grand Trunk
Mr. Walter Shanley, well known as a Canadian Engineer to the Directors of the Port Huron and Michigan Railroad Company, has presented his report to that Company. The report is not yet printed, but the following is an extract from it, for which we are indebted to the Montreal Hearld, which paper says: – ” The object of this Company, it may be shortly stated, is to cross the State of Michigan in a line wich shall be the extension of our own Grand Trunk, eastward from its termination at Fort Sarnia. It may not be uninteresting to Canadians, who feel pride in believing their fellow countrymen equal to any enterprise, to learn at once, that not only the survey for this project has been made by a fellow-countryman; but that the whole work has been contracted for by the Canadian firm of Holton, McPherson, Galt and Gzowski. TGhe extract froom the reeport is as follows:
“I have stated,” says Mr. Shanley, “that the eastern starting point of te contemplated road, is opposite to Port Sarnia, the western terminus of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, and separated from it by but half-a-mile of water. Running your finger along directly opposite to the other extremity of the route, and distant from it by the width of Lake Michigan (85 miles) stands Milwaukie, already noticed as the commercial metropolis of the Great State of Wisconsin, and now numbering a population of 30,000, which judging from past progress, is certain to be doubled within four years, a certain criterion of the magical growth of civilized communities in the Far West. We would here beg leave to refer you to the map of the United States and Canada, and to direct your attention to the route of the Grand Trunk Railway, from Portland, in the State of Maine, to Montreal, thence following the banks of the St. Lawrence to Toronto, from Toronto in a general westerly direction to Sarnia, at which point you are close under the 43rd parallel of latitude. Near the parallel, westward, you will find Port Huron, Grand Haven, Milwaukie, points in the same leading line from Lake Ontario to the broad west: and still pursuing it beyond Milwaukie farther towards the Pacific, you reach the great Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien.–Beyond is spread out the immense State of Iowa and the vast Minesota territory, inviting millions to fix their homes upon these smiling prairies, to cultivate for the benefit of mankind the teeming soil that till yesterday was in undisputed possession of Nomadic tribes of Indians and countless herds of Buffalo. From Prairie du Chien, the Mississippi is navigable downwards 1,500 miles to the Guelph of Mexico; upwards of 160 miles to St Paul’s, at the falls of St. Anthony, to which point steamers are daily plying during the season of navigation. Milwaukie has a Railway in operatiuon half-way to Prairie du Chien; the whole distance will be completed in less than two years and though we have travelled due west 450 miles from Sarnia before reaching the Mississippi, we are still scarcely more than on the threshold of the far west, which like the mirage of its prairies ever seems to recede before the traveller bewildered with the immensity and fertile sameness of the regions that suuround him. With a long route from the west, terminating at Milwaukie and the gigantic Trunk Line of Canada terminating at Sarnia, a link between the two, such as the Norther Michigan road would be, must command an immense through travel, nor need the break in the chain caused by the crossing of Lake Michigan, be looked upon as detrimental to the interests of such a line. * * * * The traveller from beyond the Mississippi, weary of a long day passed in the Railway carriage, will joyfully hail a sunset view of the clear waters of Lake Michigan, and the porspect of a night’s rest on board the steamer awaiting him in the Harbour of Milwaukie. He awakens next morning to take his seat in the train for Port Sarnis, where he arrives at 10 A.M., and at 3 P.M. of the same day finds himself in Toronto, where if he be travelling for pleasure, as many thousands from the South and West do in the summer, he may again take the water for the sake of enjoying the scenery of the St. Lawrence. The man of business bound for the Atlantic coast or Europe will keep upon the rail to Montreal and Portland.
The whole distance thus brought into the most direct communication with this city, is westward to Prairie du Chien, nine hundred and fifty-eight miles, eastward to Portland two hundred and ninety; in all twelve hundred and forty eight. This distance is thus divided, viz: Prairie du Chien to Milwaukie 160 miles; Milwaukie per Steamer to Grand Haven 85 miles; Grand Haven to Port Sarnia, 202 miles; Port Sarnia to Toronto, 168 miles; Toronto to Montreal, 243 miles; Montreal to Portland 290 miles; or to Quebec 180.
Mr. Shanley has so compiled the statement of the capabilities of the road to remunerate its projectors, as to put us in possession of facts, in themselves, of no slight importance. It appears from them that the Northern Michigan Railroad is the third parellel road crossing the Michigan peninsular,–that the two existing lines, the southern and the central, run within a territory of only some 35 miles of latitude, while the rest of the state to the northward of the latter, will of course be wholly tributary to the Norhtern road, at least till other competing lines are established. Notwithstanding the comparative smallness of the territory pierced by the Southern and Central roads, and the division of the business between the rival routes, the Central has paid dividends of 14 per cent, and never less than 8, and the Southern of 12 per cent. Of the revenues, the largest portion is derived from through traffic, 70 per cent of those of the Central Michigan arising from that source and that the Northern will not be behind on this score may be easily conjectured from the fact that the eight counties through which the latter will pass have increased in population from 14,418 in 1834, to 65,904 in 1850.
65,904 in 1850. In the same localities the valuation of real estate has increased from 1851 to 1853 by no less a sum than $13,283,433. As coal, gypsum and pine timber are all to be found upon the line of the railway, all more or less, as our French friends say, exploites, it is not too much to expect that the country will afford as large a revenue per head as the tracts of the State of New England, New York, and the Southern part of Michigan through which other roads run. The estimate founded on experience of these roads $3 per head. This in 1858, would give a revenue from local traffic of $705,000. Mr. Shanley assumes that the Northern will command at least as considerable a through traffic as the Central Michigan in close proximity to a powerful rival; and taking that as his basis of addition to the local traffic, he arrives at the annual gross revenue of $1,277,500, or net revenue of $662,625, or 8 1/4 per cent, on the outlay of $8,000,000, which will be the cost of the road at $40,000 per mile.