  the utah & northern railway is a defunct railroad that was operated in the utah territory and later in the idaho territory and montana territory in the western united states during the 1870s and 1880s. it was the first railroad in idaho and in montana. the original  of the utah northern railroad (later named utah & northern railway) was conceived and built by the mormons. it was a  narrow gauge spur off the union pacific portion of the transcontinental railroad. the labor for this railroad was largely volunteer mormon labor as the intent of the railroad was to serve the mormon communities in the cache valley that had been settled almost entirely by the mormons. it was a case of mormons forming a company and building their own railroad because existing railroad companies showed no interest in building such a railroad.colorado rail annual no. 15, colorado railroad museum, 1981, pp 9-10. the northern half of the cache valley is in idaho and, due to claims and disputes by the shoshone and bannock indians, was not settled by the mormons until after the bear river massacre and subsequent fort bridger treaty of 1868 that forced the shoshone and bannock onto reservations.bd madsen, the northern shoshone, caxton printers, 1980. pp 33-36. the original mormon plan for the utah northern was to build a railroad to the communities in the cache valley and about  into idaho to soda springs, idaho that lies in a valley beyond called the bear river valley. this was by dictate of brigham young as he owned land in soda springs and believed that the bear river valley had potential for further mormon settlement.colorado rail annual no. 15, colorado railroad museum, 1981, p 14. the mormons also believed they could break the monopoly that the anti-mormon town of corinne, utah had on the wagon freight business on the montana trail by extending the railroad into idaho.colorado rail annual no. 15, colorado railroad museum, 1981, p 12. there were tentative plans to eventually extend the utah northern to montana. the road was constructed northward from the union pacific line at ogden commencing construction on august 24, 1871. in three years, the largely volunteer railroad company had built only  of road. it reached franklin, idaho, just across the idaho border, in may 1874 where construc
3_ft_gauge_railways_in_the_United_States Defunct_Idaho_railroads Defunct_Montana_railroads Defunct_Utah_railroads Narrow_gauge_railroads_in_Utah Pre-statehood_history_of_Idaho Pre-statehood_history_of_Montana Predecessors_of_the_Union_Pacific_Railroad Railway_companies_disestablished_in_1889 Railway_companies_established_in_1878 Utah_Territory