Wheels West Day in Susanville History – July 17th, 1887

Building the N. & O. Offices, Alturas, California, ca.1915

The Narrow Gauge
July 15th, 1887
From the Modoc Independent Newspaper

From the best information we can get it seems that the owners of the narrow gauge railroad, which is to extend from Reno northward, will build it as far as Susanville – probably within the next year, and that there it is likely to remain for an indefinite length of time.

We have heretofore been of the opinion that a railroad even within eighty or ninety miles of us, would be of considerable benefit to the county, but quite a number of our business man seem to be of a different opinion.

A merchant of Alturas, who is a heavy shipper of goods, says he could not afford to patronize the N. & O. Railroad even should it come to Susanville, for the reason that the railroad charges on freight to Reno are nearly double the charges to Redding.

Then add the cost of unloading and reloading on the cars of the N. & O., and the additional freight to Susanville; the commission charges, etc., and then the teamster’s freight from Susanville to Alturas, and this freight would cost as much, if not more, than it now cost to get goods via Redding. Other business men here hold to the same opinion.

The merchants of Surprise valley contend that they can get goods as cheaply via Reno, as they can via Susanville.

The stock raiser says he would as soon drive to Reno or Redding as to drive to Susanville, and so say a great many other people, and these are the sentiments of the people living in the large, fertile valleys, east, north and west of us.

If the N. & O. folks want the trade of this vast northern country they must build out and get it.

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