Union Pacific in Utah

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Union Pacific Railroad, 1862-1869

The Great Iron Trail

by Robert West Howard

(Pages 354-357)

(G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1962)

1862, Spring -- Theodore Judah appointed secretary of both House and Senate committees on Pacific Railway Act.

1862, July 1 -- President Lincoln signed Pacific Railway Act.

1862, September 2 -- Commissioners from 20 States and Territories met in Bryan Hall, Chicago to create Union Pacific Railroad & Telegraph Co., with William B. Ogden as president, Thomas W. Alcott as treasurer and Henry V. Poor as secretary.

1862, December 27 -- Charles Crocker & Co. awarded contract for first 18 miles of Central Pacific roadbed.

1863, January 8 -- Ground-breaking ceremony for Central Pacific at Sacramento.

1863, Summer -- Power struggles between Theodore Judah, Charles Crocker and Collis P. Huntington reached crisis.

1863, October 30 -- Illegal stock purchases by Thomas C. Durant enabled transfer of Union Pacific Railroad & Telegraph Co. to private management, with John A. Dix as president, Thomas C. Durant as vice-president and general manager.

1863, November 1 -- Theodore Judah died in Metropolitan Hotel, New York City, a few blocks from office where Union Pacific's new officers were meeting.

1863, December 2 -- Ground-breaking ceremony for Union Pacific on Missouri River bluffs, two miles north of Omaha.

1864, Spring -- Thomas Durant, George Francis Train and associates created Crédit Mobilier of America from Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency.

1864, Summer -- Contract for construction of 247 miles of Union Pacific to 100th meridian assigned to Herbert Hoxie, Iowa politician, who promptly re-assigned it to Crédit Mobilier.

1865, January -- Peter Dey resigned as Chief Engineer of Union Pacific.

1865, Spring -- Charles Crocker began hiring Chinese "coolies" for Central Pacific's work-gangs.

1865, August -- Colfax-Bowles party toured Central Pacific's o50 miles of track up Sierra's west face.

1865, September 22 -- Major General Grenville Dodge and patrol, besieged by Crow war-party, discovered Lone Pine Pass across Black Hills.1865,

1865, November -- General William T. Sherman, perched on nailkeg, rode Union Pacific's first "Grand Excursion" from Omaha o15 miles to end-of?track.

1866, February 8 -- J. S. and D. T. Casement contracted to build first construction-train and undertake tracklaying for Union Pacific.

1866, Spring -- Samuel B. Reed and Hoxie organized Chicago-St. Joseph-Omaha relay route for delivery of Union Pacific's supplies.

1866, April -- Casement's construction-train began laying track at record-breaking pace of oone mile a day.

1866, July -- Central Pacific's tracks entered Dutch Flat, o67 miles from Sacramento.

1866, August -- Union Pacific gangs fought off first Indian attack near Plum Creek, o200 miles west of Omaha.

1866, October 15 -- Special train left New York City with guests for Durant's Grand Excursion to the 100th meridian.

1866, November 22 -- Casement construction-train wintered in at junction of North and South Platte rivers, thus founding North Platte (i.e., the first Hell-on?Wheels).

1866, November 23 -- Oliver Ames elected president of Union Pacific Railroad & Telegraph Co.

1866, November 25 -- Central Pacific gangs began gargantuan task of hauling locomotives, rails, supplies up wagonroad from Cisco o15 miles across Sierra summit.

1867, Early Spring -- First nitroglycerin factory presumably built near Donner Lake by Central Pacific.

1867, March 6 -- Anti-Coolie Labor Association founded in San Francisco.

1867, April -- Heavy floods and snowslides wrecked trackage along both railroads. Crocker and Montague reached decision to build snowsheds through Sierra.

1867, July 4 -- Generals Rawlins and Dodge christen new city of Cheyenne.

1867, July 23 -- Percy Browne, chief of Union Pacific survey crew, fatally wounded during siege by 300 Sioux in Wyoming's Great Basin.

1867, August -- Henry M. Stanley, reporter for the Missouri Democrat, pronounced Julesburg, Neb. "The wickedest city in America."

1867, August 6 -- Cheyenne raiders, led by Chief Turkey Foot, achieved first derailment and looting of Union Pacific train (i.e., near Plum Creek, Neb.).

1867, August 30 -- Rawlins-Dodge conferred with Brigham Young about L. D. S. contract for grading through Wasatch.

1867, October 1 -- With trackage completed o250 miles west of 100th meridian, Union Pacific's directors finally awarded contract for construction o667 miles west of 100th meridian to Oakes Ames.

1867, November 13 -- Union Pacific tracks entered Cheyenne.

1867, December -- Central Pacific completed Summit Tunnel.

1868, April -- Casement work-train laid track down west slope of Black Hills and founded Laramie.

1868, May 4 -- Central Pacific trackage reached Lake's Crossing, Nev., and village name changed to Reno.

1868, May 26 -- Samuel Reed and Brigham Young signed contract for grading by LDS crews down Echo and Weber canyons.

1868, July 26 -- The "show down" conference on the Durant-Dodge feud held at Fort Sanders, Wyo., with general U. S. Grant presiding.

1868, Christmas Week -- Union Pacific trackage entered Echo canyon, Utah; Central Pacific entered Elko, Nev.

1869, January -- First Union Pacific engines steamed past 1,000 Mile Post in Weber Canyon.

1869, February -- Mormon work-crews blasted parallel Union Pacific and Central Pacific grades across desert north of Salt Lake.

1869, March 3 -- Union Pacific entered Ogden, Utah.

1869, April 9 -- Huntington, Durant, Dodge agreed on Promontory Point as meeting place for Union Pacific and Central Pacific tracks.

1869, April 27 or 28 -- Thomas Durant and guests kidnapped by Union Pacific work-gangs near Bear River, Wyo. and held for ransom of "$1,000,000 in back wages."

1869, April 29 -- Crocker's work-gangs gave record-breaking display of laying o10 miles of track.

1869, May 10 -- Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory Point on 22d Wedding Anniversary of Theodore and Anna Judah.

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