"For the first time in the history of our country, the organization of a territorial government was rendered necessary by the building of a railroad." --Inaugural address of Territorial Gov. John A. Campbell, 1869.
I. Early Efforts at Dependable Transcontinental Travel and Communication
a. Asa Whitney's plan to speed up shipments to and from China to New York (1844)
b. Theodore Judah's plan to connect California to the eastern U. S. (1850s)
c. Pacific Railway surveys (1853-1856)
d. Stansbury report (1849) on presence of coal in what is now southern Wyoming
II. Other forms of transport and communication established
a. Russell, Majors, Waddell stages
b. Pony Express (April 3, 1860)
c. Creighton brothers' telegraph line, completed Oct. 24, 1861 (3 months, 20 days)
d. Ben Holladay's Overland stageline route changes to the South
e. the "Galvanized Yankees" and federal protection of transcontinental travel
f. new stations along southern Wyoming and the "fight" at Platte Bridge Station (Casper)
III. Financing a Transcontinental Railroad
a. Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act (1862): 1st mortgage with U S government; land grant
b. Congress passed the 2nd Pacific Railway Act (1864): 2nd mortgage; larger land grant, mineral rights
c. Congress gave the railroad a strip of land 400 feet wide clear across the country on which to build the tracks
d. Congress further gave the railroad "checkerboard sections"-- the railroad got the odd-numbered sections 20 miles either side of the tracks
e. establishing the Union Pacific (Iowa west)--Durant, Ames brothers
f. establishing the Central Pacific (Calif. east)--"the Big Four" (Huntington, Stanford, Hopkins, Crocker)
g. creative financing and Credit Mobilier: investors made millions due to cost overruns and improper billing
h. the Ames Monument was built by Ames admirers to commemorate the Ames brothers' role in financing UP
IV. Constructing a Transcontinental Railroad
a. Grenville Dodge, chief engineer of the UPRR, laid out a route across what is now Wyoming that could be easy for trains to use
i. explorations led to finding the "gangplank" between Cheyenne and Laramie that, except for one stretch, allowed for easy crossing of the highest point on the UP line
ii. first train arrived in Cheyenne in September, 1867, but first in Laramie didn't arrive until May 10, 1868, demonstrating how difficult the 50-mile stretch of construction west from Cheyenne really was
b. Grenville Dodge also chose the locations for towns across what is now southern Wyoming
i. Cheyenne, roughly halfway between Salt Lake and Omaha, was designated as a division point
ii. Two days after Dodge laid out the town, people already settling there; by Sept. 1867, thousands there
iii. fast growth brought Cheyenne the nickname "Magic City of the Plains"
iv. the Frontier Index became the third newspaper published in Wyoming--edited by Legh Freeman, it followed the tracks west
c. one of the biggest challenges for the UP was to bridge Dale Creek Canyon, only major impediment to route over the summit between Cheyenne and Laramie
i. construction crews waited in Cheyenne while Dale Creek Trestle, highest railroad bridge in the world at the time, was built during the winter of 1867-68. Trestle built of wood imported by rail from the Midwest.
ii. pause did not affect surveyors laying out the route west or tie hacks supplying railroad ties from the forests west of Laramie
d. Fort Sanders, south of Laramie, already in existence when the UP was building
i. federal government provided protection for track layers and for railroad towns. At Cheyenne, Fort D. A. Russell established specifically to protect the railroad.
ii. Laramie located on the "Union Pacific checkerboard section" that was located roughly from the railroad tracks east to 15th Street and from Spring Creek to Fremont. Other parts of Laramie were on the checkerboard sections retained by the federal government and later homesteaded or kept for the fort and prison until the end of the 19th century
e. lack of law and order in many "hell-on-wheels" towns (as the towns at the railhead became known)
i. first mayor and officials of Laramie resigned after three weeks claiming town was "ungovernable"
ii. vigilantes controlled lawless element through a series of lynchings and by running unruly element out of town
iii. total absence of territorial government because Congress established territory at the time President Andrew Johnson was being impeached; Congress did not wish him to appoint the territorial officers so territorial remained unorganized until after the election of President U. S. Grant
Rock River train depot, Albany County, c. 1900. J. E. Stimson photograph.
Names, Terms
Asa Whitney "galvanized Yankees" Oakes and Oliver Ames "Big 4"
Theodore Judah Fort Halleck Thomas Durant Ames Monument
Pacific railway surveys Fort Sanders Casement brothers Grenville Dodge
Jefferson Davis Lt. Caspar Collins Pacific Railway acts (1862, 1864) Dale Creek trestle
John & Edward Creighton Col. William O. Collins "checkerboard sections" "hell-on-wheels" towns
Ben Holladay Thomas Durant Credit Mobilier Frontier Index
Ames Monument, located on summit between Cheyenne and Laramie, designed by famed architect H. H. Richardson and built to commemorate the achievements of Oakes and Oliver Ames, investors in the UPRR