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Union Pacific Country by Robert Athearn Soft Cover
Union Pacific Country By Robert Athearn
480 Pages Indexed
Soft Cover
Copyright 1971, 1976
CONTENTS
Introduction 15
1. "THERE LIES A DESERT LAND" 19
2. "LET US . . . NOT DESPISE THE PLAINS" 35
3. INTO THE VIRGIN WEST 53
4. OPENING THE GATES OF ZION 69
5. "BROTHER BRIGHAM HOLDS THE WHIP" 89
6. "WE NEED ONLY TO STAND TOGETHER" 113
7. "THE GOSSAMER THROWS ITS DELICATE LINES" 129
8. "THE GARDEN OF THE WEST" 147
9. BEYOND THE MAGIC MERIDIAN 173
10. PICKET LINE OF CIVILIZATION 199
11. "AN APPLE TREE WITHOUT A LIMB" 213
12. THE "FAR-OFF COUNTRY" 237
13. To "LACE AND INTERLACE THE VALLEYS"265
14. THE MISSION OF THE RAILROAD291
15. NORTHWEST PASSAGE 311
16. "IN THE HANDS OF THE PHILISTINES" 331
17. "RECEIVERSHIP IS INEVITABLE 355
Retrospect 377
Acknowledgments 381
Notes on Sources 385
Bibliography 389
Notes and References 401
Index 459
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Tracklaying in Weber Canyon, Utah, 1868 i
Windmill and 2o-stall roundhouse at Laramie, 1868 iii
UP ticket office, Kansas City, 1892xiii
Dirt shanty, ox-drawn wagon, and the family cow 24
Group of settlers in wagon train in 1882 24
The UP's land grant, 1864 revision 29
The invasion of Indian country 40
UP tracklayers hurrying westward 41
Poster for the opening of rail service 47
Excursionists `following the flag" westward 47
Steamers bringing excursionists for a train trip, 1866 58
Rail-car transfer prior to the bridging of the Missouri River 59
Two early trains, post-Civil War64
Engine No. 2, nicknamed "Grasshopper," in service in 1865 64
Corinne, Utah, a great supply base72
Bear River City, a "hell on wheels" town 72
Mainstreet, Salt Lake City, in 1865 73
Echo City, a small Mormon community 77
A westbound construction crew 80
Telegraph men at work in Weber Canyon 80
A work train near Promontory, 186981
Slow going in snow across the Laramie plains 84
Supply train in Echo Canyon, 186992
Promontory, Utah, in May, 186992
Laying the last rail at Promontory, May , 1869 106
First train of the Utah Central, 1870106
Portrait of Grenville M. Dodge 92
Oliver Ames, third president of the UP 106
UP directors in a private car 110
Sixteenth Street, Cheyenne, 1868134
Judge Carter's cattle poster, 1877 135
Coaling on the road by Chinese laborers 140
Drawing of the UP depot at Omaha, 1868 140
UP poster offering land in Kansas 154
A group camped near Colorado Springs154
Emigrants in Loup Valley, Nebraska, 1886 161
UP advertisement of Nebraska land164
Land office in Kansas, 1874 169
Sod and lumber structure in Nebraska, 1888 178
Sketch of "The Modern Ship of the Plains " 178
Corn harvest in Kansas during the 1890s190
Threshing wheat in Kansas, about 1894 190
Jay Gould, the famed "railroad wrecker" 222
Freight wagons at Corinne, Utah 243
Engine used on both Utah and Northern and the Oregon Short Line 256
A Utah and Northern freight train, 1885 257
Engine on the Utah Central 277
Utah Southern engine at Frisco, Utah 283
Along the Columbia River 295
Workers clearing O. R. & N. tracks in winter of 1884-85 302
O. R. & N. train on the Columbia River 302
Poster by a bitter contractor 303
Sale of the UP on November 1, 1897 359
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., eighth UP president 359
LIST OF MAPS
Union Pacific Railroad 186755
Union Pacific Railroad and Connections 1870gg
Invading the Colorado Rockies 1884218
Serving the Plains Country 1884 229
The Intermountain West 1870-1884 250
UP Owned, Controlled, and Operated Lines 1893 333
The UP System after Reorganization 1900 365
As the American frontier moved across the Appalachians and approached the Mississippi River, one dominating subject of conversation among settlers was the need for improved transportation facilities. The need was partially remedied, during the 1820s and 1830s, with the construction of canals and turnpikes.
Both the Erie Canal and the National Road were regarded by contemporaries as great engineering projects, achievements that also swelled the national pride and promised accelerated economic development for the West. However, as improved as were these means of transportation and travel, each had its limitations, especially during winter. But a railroad promised speedy, relatively cheap, and all-weather service. During the 1840s and 1850s the "canal craze" gave way to a "railroad mania" and even the smallest villages hoped that they would be connected to the mainstream of the American economy by these magic threads of iron.
The pre-Civil War decade was one of railroad expansion in the West and of consolidation in the more settled parts of the land. Dreamers talked of spanning the continent, of reaching out to the Orient, and of joining the oceans with an iron link. But the great sectional question intervened and confined the effort to planning and surveying, as North and South fought over which region should be the beneficiary of such progress. A panic in 1857 tended to temporarily dry up capital, and by the time this financial distress had been alleviated the Civil War had erupted, diverting national attention for another four years.
Although the war plugged ordinary economic arteries and overloaded others, momentarily setting at rest any talk of rail expansion, the long-range effect was to be beneficial. The isolation of the West now became a matter of national concern, particularly after a Confederate thrust penetrated New Mexico and seriously threatened Colorado. The entire Pacific
Coast, including mineral-rich California, stood in danger of possible foreign intervention. Tethered to the Union by the most fragile of connections, the trans-Missouri West became increasingly the nation's concern. Not unusual, therefore, were Lincoln's efforts to reassure the American people that his administration's intent to protect this domain would include a specific proposal for a railroad to the western sea.
The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 was enacted because of a wartime emergency, but in congressional minds, it also fulfilled a promise to the nation, a promise underscored by the supplementary Act of 1864, that the government would help to carry out a project which had been talked about for three decades. As the war ended, private enterprise responded to the attractions provided by congressional legislation and at long last rail-laying began.
The war-weary American public, sickened by the destruction wrought during the fratricidal conflict, gladly turned its attention to this constructive enterprise. As the rails reached for each other from Sacramento and Omaha, there developed a mounting excitement among a people who traditionally loved a contest. The drama of crews battling Indians and the elements, of crossing high mountains and dangerous deserts, and roistering far into the night after having labored during heroic days not only intrigued contemporaries, but it would also hold hostage the minds of those who would recount the great event in the decades to come. Writers would invariably label it "A Work of Giants" or "Moguls and Iron Men" to describe the superhuman effort of the builders. The movement toward Utah would be called the "High Road to Promontory" or "Westward to Promontory" to depict that lonely point on a Utah summit as the ultimate goal. And May 10, 1869, would represent not only the climax of the story, but also its conclusion. For a century after that date Americans regarded the event much the same as had those who watched the ceremonial spike-driving: a moment of triumph, the successful and satisfying realization of an American dream.
The story of the Union Pacific's development in the years following that champagne-drenched day at Promontory has never been told. Nelson Trottman's History of the Union Pacific (1923) came closest. That work, written by an attorney and subtitled "A Financial and Economic Survey," dealt largely with administrative matters and corporate problems. Because of the vast amount of material available on that aspect alone, the author was able to devote only a single 20-page chapter to the growth of auxiliary and branch lines. Yet the trackage of those feeders was more than four times larger than the core system (including the Kansas Pacific and the Denver Pacific).
The original line served only a relatively narrow strip of land across
Nebraska, while portions of the road in both Wyoming and Utah crossed country that even today is hardly regarded as a garden spot. If the UP's managers hoped to own anything but a carrier of through traffic they had to expand the road far beyond the confines of the granted lands. Company officials recognized this at an early date and began at once to think in terms of feeders that would augment main line traffic. As that policy was put into effect, piece by piece, there developed a large segment of the West that might properly be called "Union Pacific Country."
Executives of the modern Union Pacific recognize that the spread of the system and the development of the country through which the road and its many branches ran comprise the real history of the mad. As the centennial year approached, and as the flow of "Dash to Promontory" books began, these officials looked with increasing interest at the prospect of telling the story that might well be entitled "Promontory Epilogue." After long discussions with Arthur Z. Gray, President of the Union Pacific Foundation, it was agreed that I should undertake such a study. The conferences were the result of a deep interest in the subject expressed to Mr. Gray by E. Roland Harriman, son of E. Fl. Harriman and then Chairman of the Union Pacific's Executive Committee.
The principal concern of these men was that the book be written independently and with as much objectivity as possible. Although they offered to support my efforts during summers, when I might otherwise have engaged in teaching, they stressed that all points of view, attitudes, and conclusions were to be mine and mine alone. They further promised that no company doors would remain closed in my search for materials pertinent to the study. I am happy to say that this agreement was carried out to the letter. Even better, company employees who had knowledge of the whereabouts of material that might be useful came forward and volunteered their help in making it available to me.
The principal problem I faced was that of recounting the growth of a railroad empire made up of a great many lines, large and small. The country they served stretched from the Missouri River to the Pacific Northwest and from Texas to Montana. By the early 1900s it would involve Nevada and California, when the Los Angeles to Salt Lake City line was included, and for a brief moment would include the whole Southern Pacific system. In an effort to make the story as manageable as possible I decided to concern myself principally with what might be thought of as the pioneering period of the company's history, or, to put it another way, the pre-Harriman era. Even within that scope, choices had to be made. I elected not to dwell heavily upon the original construction aspects, since that has been done many times, but rather to take the point of view of those contemporaries who waited patiently in the West for the coming of the railroad. Using that background I then made an effort to tell the story of the road's penetration of a virgin land and to make some assessment of both the problems encountered and the successes or failures in solving them. So voluminous is the material available for a work of this kind that a great many things had to be left out or merely touched upon if a readable and understandable result were to be reached. This then is not intended to be the history of a railroad company, but rather one chapter in the larger story of how the American West was penetrated, settled, and developed with the aid of steam and iron.
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