Owing to these operations the mileage of the system increased from 1384 in 1887 to 3257 in 1889, and to 3408 in 1891. The greater part now lay in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado instead of in Illinois and Iowa, while at the same time the addition of the new mileage through sparsely settled districts decreased the density of traffic and the gross and net receipts per mile of line. In 1887 the Rock Island was earning the very high return of $8899 gross per mile operated; in 1891 this had fallen to $5126; in 1887 the net return was $3478 per mile; in 1891 it had fallen to $1484; in other words, the new mileage brought an increase in traffic, but not nearly so great a traffic per mile as the Iowa and Illinois lines had enjoyed, while the financing of the new construction swelled the annual charges from $1,795,351 to $4,775,601, and even with the larger mileage increased the charges per mile from $1295 in 1887 to $1400 in 1891. We need not, therefore, be surprised that the rate of dividends dropped from 7 per cent to 5¾ per cent and then to 4 per cent; nor that the price of common stock fell from its high level of 140⅞ in May, 1887, to 63⅜ in March, 1891. It was in this weakened condition that the Rock Island encountered the panic of 1893 and the years of depression which followed, and yet, in spite of the marked decrease in business in the years 1895–6–7, it continued to pay dividends, and showed no signs of financial distress except the lowering of its rate to 2 per cent. As a matter of fact the road was still in these years one of the strongest in the United States. Its lines were well located, its management was conservative, and consequently trusted, and its credit was good; so that at a time when some of the largest systems in the United States were being forced to the wall, it was enabled to preserve its solvency and even to keep up fairly liberal expenditures for maintenance of way and rolling stock. Little new construction was of course indulged in. In 1892 an extension was begun from Minco, the terminus of the Rock Island in the northwest corner of the Indian Territory, southwards;[655] in 1893 the southern boundary of the Territory was reached, and the Chicago, Rock Island & Texas Railway Company was organized to build through Texas;[656] and in 1894 a combined line was opened to Fort Worth; but exclusive of the Chicago, Rock Island & Texas, the total mileage increased by but 360 miles between 1890 and 1900, being an average of 33 miles a year.