The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1910-12-03
union PACIFIC
HAS A BIRTHDAY

Thursday was the forty-seventh
birthday of the Union Pacific railroad.
just two score and seven years ago
spadeful of earth was thrown up at
Council Bluffs by party Of engineers.
December l was the anniversary Of
that epoch making event in railroad
history.
Six years later, in the presence Of
notable body of men, golden spike
at Promontory, Utah, was driven into
the last tie of the Union Pacific rail
road and welded together q chain Of
iron roads which have since been
|amalgamated into the Hartman sys-
tenn.
In spite Of the war, which at that
time monopolized the attention of the
western world, the frst-named act,
which was really the beginningg of the
great undertaking and of one Of the
greatest in railroad history, set hearts
beating with anticipation because, 80
far as the great west is concerned it
severed the past from the future and
opened up new age which must wit
ness the passing of the thrilling incl
dents of frontier life.
New Means Of Travel.
The second act, which occurred in
May, 1869, marked the end of travel
by stage coach, OK teams and ocean
vessels via the Horn. Up to that time
the trip to the coast entailed expense
and danger. Even the rails of the new
road were laid through a hostile In.
dian country, and many a man engag
ed in the work gave up his life and
scalp to marauding bands of savage
red men. The new line, which was
known as the Pacific railroad, connect
ed at Promontory with the Central
Pacific, and completed line by which
the Pacific coast could be reached in
four or five days, whereas, formerly it
had taken 169 days by way Of the
Horn.
The new route was known as the
"Great Platte Valley" route, and a
first class ticket cost 800. An 'emi-
gration' ticket could be purchased for
$45.
The Union Pacific Railroad COM
pany was organized on September 2,
1862, at Chicago by Major General 8.
r. Curtis, of Iowa, who was the first
chairman of the company. It was due
to bill by this representative in con-
gress that the building of the road
was made possible. He secured the
necessary appropriations, and later the
responsibilities were assumed by SEN
ator Harlan. who worked for the COM
pletion of the road while Curtis was
at the front fighting.
It has generally been supposed that
Brigham Young, who had founded his
Mormon city in the heart OF the great
selfish reasons, to letting the Union
Pacific pass through Salt Lake, but
this is a mistaken idea that is enter
tanned to this day by many resi-
dents of the Utah capital. Brigham
Young was anxious to have the line
pass through the city, and every effort
was made by the engineers 10 hnd
desirable opening through the Wasatch
mountains, but the idea had to be
abandoned.
The new line went through the
mountains at Ogden, and q branch
line, now operated as part of the Ore
gon Shor thine system, was run to Salt
Lake from that city. It is singular
fact that the line Of least obstacles,
lowest grades and least curvatures
eventually adopted by the Union Pa
cific was first laid out by the buffalo,
then followed by Indians and FUR
traders, and later by the emigrants.
That route, matter of 1,032 miles,
has never been shortened but by q
comparatively few miles. The dis
tanca from Omaha to Ogden is now
l.OO3 miles, one of the more recent,
most important and most expensive
efforts to shorten the line being made
when the Lane cutoff near Omaha
was built.
While no attention was paid to the
forty seventh anniversary OF the
Union Pacific, it is understood that
"there will be doings" upon the oc-
easion of the fftieth anniversary