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Denver and Salt Lake Railway Tunnel Co. - Unissued Railroad Stock Certificate

Inv# RS2084   Stock
State(s): Colorado
Years: 190-
Color: Brown

Unissued Preferred Stock. Large train in tunnel vignette by New York Bank Note Co. Superb! Mint Condition.

The Denver and Salt Lake Railway (D&SL) was a U.S. railroad company located in Colorado. Originally incorporated in 1902 as the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific (DN&P) Railway, it had as a goal a direct connection of Denver, Colorado, with Salt Lake City, Utah. It underwent numerous reorganizations throughout its financially troubled history and by the time the company was acquired in 1931 by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW or Rio Grande), it had advanced only as far as Craig, Colorado. After the acquisition the line was connected to the D&RGW main, and the eastern half of the line was used to give the D&RGW a more direct route to Denver. The portions of the railroad still in use today are known as the Moffat Tunnel Subdivision of Union Pacific Railroad's Central Corridor. Amtrak’s California Zephyr service from Denver to Glenwood Springs follows much of the old D&SL route.

David Moffat intended to build a 2.6 mile tunnel under Rollins Pass (The Denver & Salt Lake Railway Tunnel), but it was never built. Instead, he built his railroad (the Denver Northwestern & Pacific) over Rollins Pass in 1904, and the company that was intended to build the tunnel never got off the ground (the plan was to have a separately incorporated company build the tunnel and lease it back to the railroad). Moffat's plan was to start construction on the tunnel a year or 2 after he built over Rollins Pass. He gambled that by going over the pass he could get to the coal fields on the western slope and start bringing in revenue that would help pay for the tunnel. Unfortunately, the cost of fighting the snow on Rollins Pass was extremely high. 30 to 40 foot snow drifts were common there in the winter. That cost, plus the fact that he ran out of money short of the coal fields, along with his inability to get eastern investors to back him, thanks to the hated E.H. Harriman, prevented him from ever building the tunnel. Railroads were very competitive at the time, and Harriman, who ran the Union Pacific, which ran through Cheyenne to Salt Lake, was opposed to Moffat going from Denver to Salt Lake. He pulled lots of tricks, like creating dummy power companies that filed for rights to build dams for hydro-electric power. These dams, of course, were in the canyons that Moffat wanted for his railroad. The battle for Gore Canyon went all the way to Teddy Roosevelt.

It was one of the few battles Moffat won against Harriman. Moffat died in 1911 while on an east coast, fundraising for his railroad. The line had only been built from Denver to Steamboat Springs and the tunnel was still a dream. The railroad went into receivership and was reincorporated as the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad a couple of years later. It struggled for years due to snow fighting on top of the pass. There were a few attempts to get state funding for the tunnel, which failed due to other parts of the state not wanting to help pay for it. It wasn't until a disastrous flood hit Pueblo, and some creative politicians combined funding for the tunnel with relief for Pueblo, that funding was finally approved and construction of the current 6.2 mile tunnel under Rollins Pass was began in 1923 - some 20 years after Moffat first wanted to build his tunnel. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_and_Salt_Lake_Railway

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Condition: Excellent

A stock certificate is issued by businesses, usually companies. A stock is part of the permanent finance of a business. Normally, they are never repaid, and the investor can recover his/her money only by selling to another investor. Most stocks, or also called shares, earn dividends, at the business's discretion, depending on how well it has traded. A stockholder or shareholder is a part-owner of the business that issued the stock certificates.

Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.
Price: $45.00