The surge of the first railroad across the state of Kansas brought passenger service to Topeka on Jan. 1, 1866. Two years later, construction stalled in western Kansas as the Union Pacific Eastern Division awaited Congressional approval of additional funds.

After a reorganization of the company and a name change to Kansas Pacific Railway, preparations were put into place to reach the Colorado line by the end of 1869.

In the previous column, Junction City excursionists were invited to join Superintendent Blaine Marshel on an inspection tour of the rail line to that far-western border. Their interest in the Kansas Pacific was only a small demonstration of the attention drawn to railroad activity in the late 1860s.

Across the state, promoters and investors were catching ”railroad fever.” Construction of both the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (KATY) railroads began in 1868. Railroad enthusiasm stimulated the organization of numerous projected companies. The Junction City, Solomon Valley & Denver Railroad proposed to build through the frontier settlements along the Solomon River.

At Junction City, the company elected a board of directors on Monday evening, Oct. 11, 1869. At that meeting the board president, Robert McBratney, was directed to organize an inspection tour of the proposed route through the Solomon Valley to the western border of Kansas.

McBratney kept a diary and also sent letters that were printed in the newspapers. His account of the inspection tour offers a snapshot of the Solomon Valley when settlement was young, and the valley was still wild and open.

Native tribes were threatened by encroaching settlement and threatening in their response. Military protection for the tour was essential. Gen. John M. Schofield provided a government ambulance and four mules to transport the team. McBratney was joined by U. S. Senator Edmund G. Ross; Benjamin Franklin Mudge, professor at the Agricultural College and former state geologist; and Richard Mobley, state agent for the sale of railroad lands. Schofield added a company wagon, a wall tent and one saddle horse to the contribution. From Topeka, Gov. James M. Harvey ordered 100 state troops to accompany the inspection party for protection from Indians attack.

The inspection party met at Solomon City (present-day Solomon, Kan.) on Oct. 14, 1869. At that point, the Solomon River, flowing from the northwest, joins the Smoky Hill River as it courses to the east. The soldiers were to meet them further upstream. Before starting up the Solomon River, the inspection team visited the salt works two miles west of Solomon City. McBratney noted in his diary that 4,000 to 5,000 bushels of “large globules or cubes” had been produced by the salt works. A steam-driven mill was employed to grind the lumps into pure white crystals of salt.

As the party moved up the valley, they were greeted on Oct. 17 by enthusiastic setters with tales of life along the Solomon River. Just the previous June, flood waters had risen to a depth of 20 feet in four minutes. Houses and dugout dwellings were submerged for days. Even so, settlers were optimistic for the future. John Knight, who had abandoned his flooded homestead for higher ground, presented the travelers with two sacks of potatoes.

The village of Minneapolis was reached by 2 p.m. and four miles beyond, the travelers passed a waterdriven flour and saw mill. The next day, they reached the Delphos post office and mailed some letters. A nearby “mound” on which broken remains of old “crockery” lay was examined, but having no reference to the contributing culture, they merely viewed the site as a curiosity.

By noon on the 18th, they arrived at Captain Dalrymple’s camp on Fisher Creek (west of presentday Glasco). Dalrymple’s company of 50 men had been mustered into service in July after Cheyenne and Sioux “Dog Soldier” warriors raided settlers in the Saline and Solomon valleys.

In a letter published in the Junction City Weekly Union, McBratney noted that Dalrymple’s company was “composed principally of frontier men, the very best adapted to the kind of service for which they are enlisted.”

They had built a split-log stockade during the summer and were preparing dugouts along the banks of the Solomon for winter quarters.

The party awoke the morning of the 19th to a cold rain that turned to snow. The ground was soon “whitened, with the wind still blowing with a freezing tinge.” Capt. Dalrymple detailed 10 men under Sergeant Lyon to escort McBratney’s party to the Solomon Forks.

Starting at 7:30 a.m., a four-mile march brought them to the aptly named Lost Creek, “a small but wooded stream, the waters of which sink before reaching the river.” At Asher Creek, four miles further, Captain Reeser, an early settler of three years, met them. Reeser “has had a good deal of rough Indian and frontier experience.” Unlike the settlers at Delphos, Asher Creek was without postal service and Reeser expressed a desire for a designated post office.

McBratney’s proposed railroad would bring much more than the mail once it steamed up the Solomon Valley on The Way West.

(Next time – To the Forks) “The Cowboy,” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS. Phone (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans. com.