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<br />routes but no construction took place until after 1900 when David <br />H. Moffat, Jr., began construction of his Denver, Northwestern and <br />Pacific Railway in 1902. By then a multi-millionaire from Colorado <br />gold and silver mines, Moffat hoped to build a line across the <br />Continental Divide and then along the route to Salt Lake City <br />pioneered by Jim Bridger and Lt. Edward Berthoud in 1860, that <br />today nearly parallels U.S. Highway 40 through Craig, Colorado, and <br />west into Utah. Moffat found his fortune inadequate to complete <br />the road and even with help from other Denver millionaires the line <br />never made it farther west than Craig. However, a few years after <br />the end of construction on the railway the first federal highway <br />programs were begun and by the 1930s the region was penetrated <br />by a new path for motorcars. <br />Moffat's attempts to finance the railroad included sponsoring <br />further studies of the mineral potential of the area. Moffat hired <br />geologist and mining engineer, William Weston, to conduct those <br />evaluations. Moffat published Weston's studies. But the bookshelf <br />on northwestern Colorado coal and other energy resources was <br />getting crowded during the first two decades of the twentieth <br />century. The federal government also showed an increasing interest <br />in the area, reflective of a state-wide concern for the future of <br />Colorado mining after the Silver Panic of the 189os. Hoyt S. <br />Gayle, Marius Campbell and N.M. Fenneman, among others, were sent <br />out by the United States Geologic Survey to identify and evaluate <br />the coal lands of the area. Gayle, Campbell and the other <br />explorers offer the first photographic and verbal descriptions of <br />the coal mining that was taking place in the area immediately after <br />1900. Beyond that their work led to a nearly continual federal <br />exploration for coal from the early 190os through the 195os. <br />During the early years of the twentieth century, and through the <br />Second World War, coal mining in the area remained relatively small <br />scale. While companies did mine in there, none came to dominate <br />the industry or reach the scale of a Colorado Fuel and Iron and <br />that corporation's hold over the southern Colorado coal fields. <br />The nation's energy hunger of the 1970s led to further development <br />4 <br />