The extensions to Pueblo and Kansas City, which had been made with so much caution, had at once proved
successful, for they increased the traffic of the Company to a profitable extent. Net earnings for 1876 were
nearly $1,2000,000, exceeding the estimate for that year by more than $175,000. The net earnings for 1875
had been only a little over $750,000. For 1877 they rose, in spite of flood losses, to $1,219,000. While land
sales and the development of company lands had perhaps been chiefly responsible for this prosperity, the
extension of the line to Kansas City and Pueblo had contributed much to net earnings. In 1875 it was announced
that 6,000 tourists were visiting the Colorado Rockies annually and the increase of traffic due to the opening
of Southern Colorado was all that could be expected. In other words, the progress of the road had proved
conclusively that expansion brought more traffic and that to grow meant to prosper. The careful management
of the road evidently were not insensible of this situation, for they projected a line from Florence, Kansas,
down the Walnut Valley to the south border of the state and this road was built and put into operation as far as
El Dorado, 31 miles, about July of 1877. In building the Florence El Dorado and Walnut Valley Railroad, the
directors were probably impelled more by the demands of the settlers who were buying lands in this vicinity
than from a desire to expand. Apparently there was no desire on the part of the capitalists who now controlled
the policies of the road to make the Santa Fe a great railroad; it appears from a careful study of the
Company's reports that down to 1877 the chief purpose was to develop a first class railroad between the
Missouri and the Rockies; to exploit thoroughly the lands and other natural resources touched by the lines thus
constructed and to round out an efficient and profitable transportation property whose interests would be
purely local. As early as 1874, the A. T. & S. F. Directors were willing to rely upon the Denver Rio Grande, a
narrow gauge railroad, for its connections in Colorado and southward into New Mexico and Old Mexico. But the
Denver Rio Grande was an aggressive company and should it ever gain prior control of certain strategic
mountain passes over which any railway seeking to penetrate the Rockies in this region must go, the Santa Fe
might eventually be blocked and forever remain a local railroad some few hundred miles in extent. If the Santa
Fe ever were to achieve greatness a master hand was now needed in the absolute direction of its affairs.
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