Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/258

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directors of the Chicago & Northwestern, who inspected the route to the summit of Cascade Mountains, and commended the enterprise highly. Pyne said in The Oregonian of August 23, 1886:

"I have seen enough to convince me that the story has been but half told. I believe the Oregon Pacific will be a profitable railroad and that a great city will grow up at Yaquina Bay." It was widely believed that the Oregon Pacific would connect at or near Boise City with the Chicago and Northwestern.

Notwithstanding this hopeful prospect, construction east of Albany halted in March, 1887, but on June 9, 1887, a bond syndicate at New York announced that it would carry forward the extension to Boise (Oregonian, June 10, 1887). The syndicate bore the names of Rowland G. Hazard, Samuel S. Sands, A. S. Barnes, T. Egenton Hogg, S. V. White, George S. Brown, F. W. Rhinelander. "This syndicate," ran the New York Dispatch to The Oregonian (June 9, 1887), "assures the completion of the road from its starting point at Yaquina Harbor, Ore., to its eastern terminus, Boise City, Idaho."

Contracts for construction to the summit of Cascade Mountains were let in the summer of 1887 to Nelson Bennett and G. W. Hunt. Both contractors disagreed with the company and quit December 14, 1887, and litigation followed the dispute. The company let new contracts for this work in July- August, 1888, to Brink and West for thirty miles out of Albany, and to James J. Searle, E. B. Deane and Job & Neu- gass for successive stages. Construction did not continue in 1890. The farthest point of the finished track was Boulder Creek, about twelve miles from the summit. On October 26, 1890, after the Company defaulted in interest, it went into receivership with Hogg named as receiver, by the State Circuit Court for Benton County, M. L. Pipes, Judge. The petition for receivership came from the Farmers Loan and Trust Company, of New York, trustee for the bondholders. (Oregonian, Oct. 30, 1890.)