Historic Note - Week of June 4th

The Livingston Enterprise, June 5, 1886

The surveyors of the Billings, Clarks Fork & Cooke City railroad have completed their work and returned to Billings. As predicted by the ENTERPRISE they failed to establish a line nearer than five miles of Cooke, which would render the road practically valueless to the miners of that district owing to the almost insurmountable natural barriers between the terminus of the survey and Cooke They succeeded, however, in running the line to a natural townsite which, if the road is ever built, will probably add another to the long list of “suburbs” claimed by the Gazette for Billings.

Rufus Hatch appeared before the house committee on public lands last week in opposition to the granting of the right of way for a railroad through the Park to Cooke City, basing his opposition to the bill upon the supposition that it would seize the national playground and turn it over to a powerful railroad corporation to be despoiled. It must have been a peculiar spectacle to witness this man fighting imaginary monopolists, when it is remembered that while at the head of a syndicate he not only attempted to monopolize the hotel privileges in the Park, but went so far as to attempt to prevent the transportation of tourists through the national pleasure ground except by the conveyances provided by the Hatch company. But consistency is not a characteristic of the opponents of this bill, and their opinions will doubtless be taken by the committee at just what they are worth.