300 miles too far or 300 miles too soon...a challenge

This comment about the Carson & Colorado is probably one of most famous railroad "quotes" around (even if I got it wrong in a earlier post). Gordon Chappell and I were discussing it at lunch today, and he noted that it has been used by about every historian of the SP narrow gauge starting with Gil Kneiss in the 30's, and later by Myrick and others. But no one he could think of has published any kind of original source for the quotation.

So I called David Myrick, and he could not recall the source off the top of his head but promised to check his files.

Gordon's opinion is that it is mostly likely a (reasonably) true quote, because it has the "ring of truth", which I certainly agree with. And Gordon mentioned that Bob Richardson once said he thought it came from an early Saturday Evening Post (1923?), but Gordon researched that angle and could not find anything.

I wonder if anyone here, and I know we have some serious historians as readers, can provide information about a source. A historic quote as popular as this deserves a good source!

John West