Railroad 1869 Along the Historic Union Pacific Across Wyoming

By Eugene Miller

In 1864 when construction of the transcontinental railroad was begun the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads were a "whole country" apart. Although the Union Pacific faltered at first, taking three years to cross Nebraska, the incentives of land grants and government bonds for completed mileage proved a powerful incentive for more speed.
In Wyoming they faced the bone chilling early months and sweltering summer, then the construction challenge of the climb up "Sherman Hill", bridging Dale Creek, crossing the Great Divide Desert and the never ending search for water. The surveyors and construction crews were repeatedly challenged by attacking Indians, and the new towns were overrun by outlaws, whiskey mills, and "ladies-of-the-night". But with unrelenting drive they crossed entire Wyoming, nearly 500 miles, in only 14 months.
In this book the readers will fight off the Indians attacking the survey parties near Pine Bluffs, visit the hectic town of Cheyenne as they build up supplies for the coming months, gasp as the bridge builders erect a swaying bridge across Dale Creek, arrive in Laramie to photograph the triple "neck-tie" party that rid the town of the most egregious lawbreakers, struggle across the life-draining desert and two continental divides, and escape from the mob in Bear River City to arrive at Evanston to find the railroad already in Wasatch.
During the Union Pacific's first years young photographer Arundel C. Hull followed the rails taking some of the very earliest photographs of the wild town and their inhabitants.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eugene Miller
• Release date: Jul 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9780972851190

Eugene Miller

Eugene Arundel Miller is the youngest grandson of Arundel C. Hull, who was one of the earliest photographers to travel along the Union Pacific Railroad during its construction in the late 1860s. Intrigued by stories of Hull’s travels across the Nebraska plains and into the mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, Miller researched Hull’s early life and organized his photos to write his biography and Miller’s major book “Rail-road 1869, Along the Historic Union Pacific”. The book traces construction of the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha to Promontory during 1867 to 1869 and incorporates many photographs by Hull and other contemporary photo-graphers. The original book, republished as a printed State-by-State series, and as an abridged e-book series, is offered for the continued enjoyment of travelers, railroad buffs, students, and historians.

Book preview

Railroad 1869 Along the Historic

Union Pacific

Across Wyoming - Abridged

By Eugene Arundel Miller

Smashwords Edition

e-book ISBN 978-0-9728511-9-0

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted without prior written permission from the author/publisher except for brief quotations for the purpose of review.

For the unabridged print edition

see ISBN: 978-0-9728511-6-9

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Challenges in Wyoming

Chapter 3 Dead Pine Bluffs

Chapter 4 Hillsdale

Chapter 5 Cheyenne

Chapter 6 Sherman Summit

Chapter 7 Dale Creek

Chapter 8 Laramie

Chapter 9 Fort Steele and Benton

Chapter 10 Rawlins Springs and West

Chapter 11 Rock Springs

Chapter 12 Green River

Chapter 13 Piedmont and Bear River City

Chapter 14 Evanston

Chapter 15 Utah's Tunnel and Bridges

Chapter 16 A Final Word

Chapter 1 Introduction

In the early 1860s the United States Congress finally authorized the building of a transcontinental railroad. The newly formed Union Pacific was granted the right to build from Omaha westward. The Central Pacific received the permission to build from Sacrament eastward. And the race was on.

When construction started in 1865, the two railroads were a whole country apart. But during the following four years, as their respective rails drew closer, an increasingly intense race developed. The United States government had not clearly determined the railroad meeting point and each company raced to construct as many miles of track as possible to reap the benefits of land grants and government backed bonds.

Investors could readily see that a completed railroad across the country would hasten the settlement of the western lands and that railroad companies could monopolistically control the rates for freight and passengers. The early Union Pacific officials had an even greater view. They pontificated, The profit is not in operating the railroad but in BUILDING it! The entire enterprise thus attracted dreamers, schemers, and influence peddlers, giving rise to all manner of skimming, side deals, and corner cutting.

Union Pacific Railroad 1864-1869.

The Union Pacific struggled to build the first few miles out of Omaha. By the end of 1864 they had completed only 40 miles. A major change was in order. Samuel Reed was made Engineer of Construction and Casement brothers (two hard bitten former Union Generals) organized the construction forces. The rails reached North Platte by the end of the third year, 1867, crossed Nebraska, 516 miles.

In Wyoming we follow the surveyors and construction crews as they run into trouble with displaced Native Americans (known then as Indians), and shudder at the lawlessness in the newly created towns. We shiver during the most severe winter weather in decades, then swelter as the workers tame the great Wyoming desert and blast their way down the steep hard rock canyons of Utah. Finally, we enjoy the celebration and libations during the grand finale, driving the Golden Spike at Promontory.

Thousands of people contributed their brains and brawn to the construction effort. The most visible workers were the doggedly determined construction crews. But there were invisible thousands who contributed: the surveyors working miles ahead of the constructors, the woodsmen and sawmill operators laboring in forests far out of sight, and hundreds of workers back east who produced the rails, switches, fish plates, and spikes, work clothes and shoes, shovels and picks. Crews in Chicago were precutting timbers, making columns, braces, and beams ready to ship out on the line for bridges. There were teamsters, bull whackers, graders, and spikers, the cowboys, butchers and cooks who provided fresh meat and fed the work crews, the well diggers, water tank and windmill builders, and miners searching for coal to fuel the locomotives. Not to be forgotten are the newly recruited train crews, the telegraphers, stations masters, rail maintenance crews, machinists, boiler makers, pipe fitters, and carpenters.

Disdained by some but celebrated by others were the whiskey purveyors, saloon operators, the dance-hall owners and girls, and the much needed legitimate merchants. All of them were seeking opportunity, excitement, and riches.

The railroads created thousands of new jobs and brought thousands of new inhabitants to the West. The entire nation was changed in ways that could not have been imagined. During the next century these first 1,094 miles of the Union Pacific Railroad grew into a nationwide transportation system.

Among the thousands of individuals who contributed their efforts and energies in creating the monumental transcontinental railroad, many characters emerged larger than life for their roles in the construction effort. Among the giants were these railroaders:

Important to our historical travelogue are other lesser known individuals who broadened the record of the railroad’s monumental effort and its effects:

Arthur N. Ferguson, a young man from Bellevue, Nebraska, signed on as a surveyor's rod man in the railroad’s corps of engineers. His diaries survived the years and describe his adventures as part of a location survey crew in Nebraska and into Wyoming during 1865 and 1866.

Leigh Freeman and Fred Freeman were a pair of unrepentant Southern sympathizers. They seized an opportunity to publish The Frontier Index, a newspaper-on-wheels. The Freemans and their newspaper moved westward, sometimes following, but often ahead of the railroad.

Arundel C. Hull. At age 21 this young photographer could not resist the excitement and adventure offered by construction of the railroad. In the spring of 1867 he gathered together his photographic gear and started west from Omaha traveling from town to town. At each stop he picked out interesting views he thought were saleable, made photographs with glass-plate negatives, and developed them on the spot. After making a few prints, he sold what he could and moved on. In Wyoming he took some of the earliest photographs of Cheyenne, Laramie, Benton, Green River and Evanston.

Among the most notable of many colorful characters was: John A. (Jack) Morrow. Morrow's ranch and way-station lay near the confluence of the North and South Platte Rivers in western Nebraska. He was widely known to charge outrageously high prices for supplies. He continued his opportunism into Wyoming by harvesting timber and selling ties to the railroad, often from cribbed stockpiles.

Chapter 2 Challenges in Wyoming

For three years the Union Pacific struggled to get started and to push the rails across Nebraska, but in a single year the railroaders raced across the entire Wyoming Territory, 441 miles, from Cheyenne to Evanston!

Union Pacific Railroad - Progress Across Wyoming 1867-1868

The challenges facing the railroad inspired the entire country! Followers could make it big, and for the railroad promoters a great incentive loomed. The more miles of track put in place, the more land could be acquired and more government bonds could be claimed.

Thousands traveled to the West seeking the excitement and the opportunities. Each of the individuals who followed the rails had their own story of adventure and hardship. Only a few of those stories were recorded.

One of those few records, the diary of Arthur Ferguson, tells of his travel from Omaha into Wyoming. There, in 1868, he met his brother and his survey crew and commenced a long assignment near Fort Fred Steele on the North Platte River. Ferguson nearly drowned during the first few days at the river and survived numerous real and rumored Indian threats. He remained stationed near Fort Steele the following year, 1869, as the rails from the east and west were joined with the Golden Spike at Promontory.

Among his last diary entries Ferguson writes with immense pride about his contribution to the construction of the transcontinental railroad.

The young photographer, Arundel Hull, also followed the railroad construction crews. Throughout 1867 and 1868 Hull took photos with his cumbersome wet-plate camera, developing the negatives and making prints right there. Late in 1868 he reached Green River and tiring of a subsistence life returned to Omaha. The following year he traveled