| From the Natchitoches (La.) Union |
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| February 20, 1862 |
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| The Grosse Tete & Central Stem
Railroads |
| An act of the Legislature at
its recent session grants to all the railroads in Louisianan, to the
stock of which the State is a subscriber, six thousand dollars for
every mile of road which shall be graded and made ready for laying the
track, payable whenever five consecutive miles are so graded. It is
provided that the bonds cannot be sold at a greater discount than five
per cent, and that the Governor may compel the proceeds of the sales
of such bonds to be used exclusively in the purchase of rails for
finishing the sections of graded road. |
| By act No. 119 all alternate
sections of public lands for six sections in width on each side are
granted to the newly chartered road from New Iberia to the Sabine
River and to the Central Stem Road from the Atchafalaya River opposite
the terminus of the Grosse Tete Road, to Natchitoches and Texas. This
land grant accrues to those roads whenever twenty consecutive miles of
road are completed. In case of pre-emption or prior occupancy of any
portion of the lands within the above limits, the deficiency is to be
made up from State lands lying within fifteen miles of the roads. The
alternate sections belonging to the State, adjoining those sections
which are granted to the roads, are not to be sold for less than
double the minimum ??? are they subject to private entry until first
offered at public sale. These provisions give the railroad companies
the advantage of the increased value which the construction of those
roads will necessarily give to the lands lying in their vicinity, as
well as an opportunity to purchase the adjoining State lands wherever
it is desirable. |
| In the two roads which form a
continuous road from the right bank of the Mississippi opposite Baton
Rouge two hundred and thirty two miles in a northwesterly direction to
Shreveport through the most fertile region of central Louisiana, the
inhabitants of this city are peculiarly interested. The palpable and
visible increase of the trade and business activity of Baton Rouge
caused by the completion of about three-fourths of a short road whose
western extremity is the Atchafalaya, indicates the greater advantages
which will accrue to us when we are put in daily communication with
Alexandria, Natchitoches, Shreveport and the cities of Eastern
Texas. There is no richer region in the South than the one whose
travel and products will be sent through this city when this great
line of road is completed. Instead of a tedious, expensive and
uncertain journey by little stern wheel boats over the almost dry bed
and the innumerable sand-bars of Red River, travelers will have a
cheap, speedy and delightful trip of half as many hours by railroad as
the river passage requires days. Those who visited us once a year will
then appear among us almost every month. The hum of busy trade will
enliven our stores and our levee will be covered with cotton, grain,
cattle and the various products of Western Louisiana and Eastern
Texas. |
| The Directory of the Grosse
Tete road, with the seventy-two thousand dollars worth of bonds which
they will get by the late act, must finish the road to the Atchafalaya
in a very few months -- probably before the end of the coming summer.
If the road extends no farther, the advantages of bringing that always
navigable steam within two hours travel from us will be very great to
Baton Rouge and to those who dwell on the banks of that river for
thirty miles above and below. The profits of the road too will be
doubled by its completion, and although its business will not when
finished to the Atchafalaya be one-fifth as much as when it shall
constitute a part of a continuous road to Alexandria or Natchitoches,
yet under its present judicious and economical management it will
become one of the most profitable roads in the Confederacy. Its net
profits for the past unfavorable year of war have been nearly half its
gross receipts. |
| Twenty-two miles and a half of
the Central Stem road beginning on the Atchafalaya are graded and
fifteen thousand cross ties are ready along the line of the road. Ten
miles more are opened and nearly cleared of timber. The six thousand
dollars per miles to which this road is entitled will give it one
hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars worth of iron to finish the
portion now graded, and in the course of the present and coming year
we may reasonably expect to see fifty miles more of the road made
ready for the track. This will bring us into direct, cheap and speedy
communication with the richest portions of central Louisianan and
render the planters of Rapides and of important portions of Avoyelles
and St Landry independent of Red River and its pestilent sand-bars,
hallows and falls. When the road is finished to Cotile, a distance of
seventy miles, the stockholders will be entitled to more than two
hundred and seventy thousand acres of wild lands which are among the
best public lands of the State. Eighty miles of the road are under
contract at fifteen thousand dollars per miles which includes all
necessary rolling stock, depots and tanks. Deducting the State aid of
six thousand dollars per mile, the road from the western terminus of
the Grosse Tete road to the eastern boundary of the parish of
Natchitoches will cost the company only seven hundred and twenty
thousand dollars -- a road which much earn from six to ten thousand
dollars per month from the day that it is completed. The enhanced
value of the now improved lands along the route of the road will be
far more than the cost of the road. Hundreds of new cotton and sugar
plantations will be opened on lands now uncultivated because of being
without any access to a market. |
| But it is impossible to
enumerate or estimate the benefits certain to result from the early
construction of this line of railroad. We hope to see it prosecuted
with vigor and that it may receive from capitalists whatever aid they
can conveniently render. |
| B. R. Advocate |
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