The Gold Rush of 1849 yielded knowledge about the riches of the Pacific Coast and about the vast spaces that separated East from West. There were three ways to get to the Pacific Coast, all difficult. Wagon trains along trails to California and the Pacific Northwest were beset with blizzards in winter, thirst in summer, and Indian attacks in
All seasons. The shorter sea route via the Isthmus of Panama could cut the six - to eight-month trip around Cape Horn to as little as six weeks. But from Chagres, the eastern port on the Isthmus, to Panama City was a five-day journey by native dugout and mule-back, and at Panama City, travelers might have a long wait before securing passage north. For those who could afford it, the best way to California was by clipper ship, which made the passage around the Horn in about 100 days.86 Thus, it is hardly surprising that a safe rail connection with the Pacific Coast was eagerly sought.
From the outset, government participation was viewed as essential. It was assumed that while the profits to the nation would be enormous, the profits to private investors would be insufficient to compensate for the enormous uncertainty surrounding such a project. By 1853, Congress was convinced of the feasibility of a railroad to the West Coast and directed government engineers to survey practical routes. The engineers described five, but years passed before construction began because of rivalry for the eastern terminus of the line. From Minneapolis to New Orleans, cities along the Mississippi River vied for the position of gateway to the West, boasting of their advantages while deprecating the claims of their rivals. The outbreak of the Civil War removed the proponents of the southern routes from Congress, and in 1862, the northern Platte River route was selected because it was used by the pony express, stages, and freight wagons.
By the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, Congress granted a charter of incorporation to the Union Pacific Railroad, which was authorized to build a line from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to the western boundary of Nevada. The Central Pacific, incorporated under the laws of California in 1861, was at the same time given authority to construct the western part of the road from Sacramento to the Nevada border. The government furnished financial assistance in two ways: in the form of grants of public land and loans for each mile of track completed. Initially, the loans were to be secured by first-mortgage bonds. Because the act of 1862 failed to attract sufficient private capital, the law was amended in 1864 to double the amount of land grants and to provide second-mortgage security of government loans, thus enabling the railroads to sell first-mortgage bonds to the public. To encourage speed of construction, the Central Pacific was permitted to build 150 miles beyond the Nevada line; later it was authorized to push eastward until a junction was made with the Union Pacific. With the railroads receiving their loans based on how much track they completed, it is not surprising that they encouraged rapid construction by pitting their workers against each other in their famous races; it is also not surprising that the quality of the track left something to be desired. (Economic Reasoning Proposition 3, incentives matter.)
The last two years of construction were marked by a storied race between the two companies to lay the most track. With permission to build eastward to a junction with the Union Pacific, the directors of the Central Pacific wished to obtain as much per mile subsidy as possible. The Union Pacific, relying on ex-soldiers and Irish immigrants, laid 1,086 miles of track; the Central Pacific, relying on Chinese immigrants, laid 689 miles, part of it through the mountains. The joining of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific occurred amid great fanfare and celebration on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit (commonly called Promontory Point), a few miles west of Ogden, Utah. By telegraph, President Ulysses S. Grant gave the signal from Washington to drive in the last spike. The hammer blows that drove home the golden spike were echoed by telegraph to waiting throngs on both coasts. The continent had at last been spanned by rail; although
THE RAILROAD AND MORMON HANDCARTERS
When the Pacific Union hooked up with the Central Pacific Railroad at Promontory Point, May 10, 1869, to form the first transcontinental railroad line, the nation was at last united by rail. In addition, the linkage ended the long-distance mail-passenger stage lines, the pony express, and one of the most unique forms of migration in U. S. history.
Even before the Mormon pioneers, fleeing from persecution in Illinois, first entered the Great Basin of Utah in 1847 and relocated their church there (Salt Lake City today), Mormon missionaries were laboring in Great Britain and northern Europe to recruit new members into the church. Before 1854, Mormons, moving west to their Land of Zion, came in wagon trains.
From 1854 to 1868, most new Mormon arrivals in Utah came from European shores to the United States by ship, then by train to the western railhead of Iowa City (later to Omaha), and then by foot, walking the last 1,000 miles. Known as handcarters, they carried their belongings on hand-pulled flatbed carts resembling Chinese rickshaws. Too poor to afford animal-drawn
Wagons, they walked west under the direction and financial assistance of the church. A momentous disaster struck in early November 1856 when two handcart companies of nearly 500 each, under the direction of Captain Willie and Captain Martin, left Iowa City “late in the season.” These two separate companies hit early winter storms at nearly 8,000 feet near the great divide in western Wyoming. News of the storms and knowledge of the numbers of people exposed and worn down on the trail motivated a rapid dispatch of an advance rescue party. Twenty-nine men galloped east from Salt Lake. Most of the 1,000-plus people stranded were saved, but between 200 and 300 perished from starvation and freezing.
Today, two coves in Wyoming where the companies held up and waited for a break in the weather are museums open to the public in remembrance of the greatest disaster of voluntary western migration in U. S. history. Though later handcart companies learned and avoided the risks that bore down so harshly on the Willie and Martin Companies, the long walks of hand-carters were not ended until the railroad’s advantage eclipsed them in the spring of 1869.
Transcontinental train travel was not without discomfort and even danger, the terrible trials of the overland and sea routes were over. See Perspective 16.1 on this page.
World History
