Photograph Exhibition
Route of the First Transcontinental Railroad - Chapter Field Trip
Near Grantsville, Utah to Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory Point, Utah
October 18, 1997
Click the map to see the complete, larger version.
We gathered not far from Grantsville, Utah (sometimes known at the beginning of the trails era and before Mormon settlement as Twenty Wells or Hastings Wells), about 25 miles west of Salt Lake City and crossed the great salt desert to the west on Interstate 80 in a little over an hour. Emigrants and argonauts on what became known as the Hastings Road typically spent two or more days of forced march often travelling day and night to cross this waterless landscape. Wagons were abandoned and animals lost on the treacherous flats. Human deaths were reported.
The field trip began with visits to traces along the Utah-Nevada border of a route pioneered by the Bidwell-Bartelson party of 1841 and later traveled by both famous and forgotten users of the Hastings Cutoff west of the great salt desert.
The highlight of the field trip was driving over 90 miles of the original 1869 Transcontinental Railroad grade and visiting historic sites along the way. Though the completion of the railroad officially ended the pioneer era and the necessity of travelling the old emigrant roads to the West, the historic and well-preserved railbed is a must-see for trail buffs.
Our approximate route on the off-highway portion of the trip is shown in blue in the NW corner of the Utah map at right. The railroad grade began at Lucin, Utah not far from the Nevada border, and we drove it east to Promontory Summit and the Golden Spike National Historic Site. The photographs and captions tell the story.
An excellent source of information on the section of roadbed that we visited, and the one consulted in the preparation of the picture captions is: Anan S.Raymond and Richard E.Fike, Rails East to Promontory, The Utah Stations, Cultural Resource Series No. 8, Bureau of Land Management, Utah, Special reprint, 1994. The BLM Salt Lake District can be reached at: (801) 977-4300.
1. Made 10/18/97 at Crossroads kiosk site, Near Pilot Peak ~20 miles North of Wendover, UT. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
View looking north, just inside Nevada. The fifteen cars in the caravan stop and their occupants visit the site where Utah Crossroads Chapter will erect an interpretive kiosk describing the significance of this area in trails history. Jan Maynard is seen here with Pilot Peak, beacon to emigrants crossing the great Salt Desert in the background.
4. Made 10/18/97 , ~22 miles North of Wendover, UT. Donner Spring at Foot of Pilot Peak. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
This is Donner Spring, life-giving font to many struggling emigrant trains on the Hastings Road. View looking southeast. In conjunction with the 1994 OCTA convention in Salt Lake City the Utah Crossroads Chapter fenced the spring to protect its natural and historic values, erecting several panels that describe the life-saving importance of these waters for people and animals that made it across the arid 83 mile expanse of salt desert to the east, a portion of which is the sliver of white just below the distant mountain.
7. Made 10/18/97 , just east of Lucin, UT. BLM Sign
Transcontinental RR Grade. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
The major purpose of our Fall outing was to drive more than 90 miles of roadbed from the original Transcontinental Railroad, visiting historic sites along the way. The sign at the western terminus of the driveable section, made mostly obsolete for railroad use in the early part of the century says:
HISTORIC CENTRAL PACIFIC
RAILROAD GRADE 1869-1942
THE ORIGINAL GRADE OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD (THE PROMONTORY BRANCH) MAY BE FOLLOWED FROM HERE TO THE EAST, AROUND THE GREAT SALT LAKE TO GOLDEN SPIKE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, AND TO THE WEST ABOUT A MILE TO WHERE IT JOINS THE LUCIN CUTOFF AND THE REST OF THE ORIGINAL LINE TO CALIFORNIA. THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD AT PROMONTORY SUMMIT MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE WESTWARD EXPANSION OF OUR COUNTRY. IT LINKED EAST AND WEST, OPENED UP VAST AREAS TO SETTLEMENT, AND PROVIDED EASY ACCESS TO NEW MARKETS.
THE TASK OF CONSTRUCTING THE RAILROAD WAS ENORMOUS REQUIRING SEVERAL YEARS AND UNTOLD HARDSHIPS. THIS 90 MILES WAS THE LAST STRETCH OF ALMOST 800 MILES OF CONSTRUCTION FROM SAN FRANCISCO. IT HAD A NUMBER OF DIFFICULT GRADES WHICH REQUIRED EXTRA ENGINES TO PULL HEAVILY LOADED TRAINS. THE LUCIN CUTOFF, CURRENTLY IN USE, WAS COMPLETED IN 1904. IT CROSSES THE LAKE BY TRESTLE AND BUILT UP GRADE, SHORTENING THE ORIGINAL ROUTE BY 40 MILES AND ELIMINATING THE DIFFICULT GRADES.
FOLLOWING COMPLETION OF THE CUTOFF, TRAFFIC DWINDLED ON THE PROMONTORY BRANCH, CONSISTING PRIMARILY OF LOCAL RESIDENTS AND LIVESTOCK. IN 1942, THE RAILS WERE REMOVED SO THE STEEL COULD BE USED IN THE WAR EFFORT.
10. Made 10/18/97 about ten miles east of Lucin, UT. Wooden Trestle, Ca. Turn of the Century. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
Numerous wooden trestles are found along the grade to bridge the many washes that conduct the usually sparse but occasionally torrential rains from the semi-desert flatlands toward the Great Salt Lake. Most are not original construction but replacements installed around the turn-of-the-century. The trestles are not considered safe to support automobiles so modern-day travelers along the old railbed must detour around them. View looking generally north.
13. Made 10/18/97 in Kelton, UT, at Kelton Cemetery W of Promontory Summit, UT. Kelton, UT, is also about 55 miles east of Lucin, UT. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
View looking generally south. This is what is left of the cemetery at once-thriving Kelton. Trains met freighters and stage lines here that pushed into the intermountain north of Idaho, Montana and even Oregon. In the 1870s some six million pounds of goods were transferred at Kelton from trains to wagons each year. Goods and passengers also moved from the rich north country onto trains here and all the activity made for prosperous businesses and lively times for residents and visitors alike. Kelton had its share of wild west excitement and even reports of daring stagecoach robberies near town can be found in area newspapers.
Railroad facilities were typically sited every ten miles or so of track and Kelton had shops, a turntable, water tank and pumphouse. Redwood pipelines brought water to the town from the Raft River Mountains.
16. Made 1869 just west of Promontory Summit. Historical Photograph - Ten Miles of Track in One Day! Photograph by Southern Pacific Railroad in Rails East to Promontory
The race to build its railroad was a high-stakes enterprise for each company. Work on parts of the grades had extended so far ahead of actual track-laying that the Central Pacific may have been building road in Wyoming while the Union Pacific graded into Nevada. Even after Promontory Summit had been chosen for the meeting of the rails competition remained high.
Early in 1869 Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific boasted that his crews could lay ten miles of track in a single day. UP workers laughed at the claim. On April 28, 1869 CPRR Chinese coolies and Irish track-layers set out to prove it. In a feat of organization, skill, strength and determination not equaled in the annals of railroad building before or since, by lunch these men had put down six miles of new track and by the end of the day the team had laid its full ten miles. Each track layer had lifted 125 tons of iron. Over 25,000 ties, more than 3,000 rails and 14,000 bolts had been set. To prove the road was good an engine ran up and back at high speed. A sign still commemorates the men's epic accomplishment.
2. Made 10/18/97 at Crossroads kiosk site, ~20 miles north of Wendover, UT. Bidwell-Bartleson Route. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
View looking west. Roy Tea, our field trip guide, talks to the group. On this site located in Nevada a few miles south of Donner Spring, Utah, the Crossroads Chapter will erect an interpretive kiosk to educate the public about this significant section of trail. The trace that traverses the photograph from right to left was pioneered by the Bidwell-Bartelson Party of 1841 the first overland emigrants to California, is the road taken by the Donner Party and others in 1846 and by at least hundreds of argonauts bound for California during the Gold Rush years of 1849-50.
5. Made 10/18/97 , ~22 miles North of Wendover, UT at Donner Spring. George Ivory at Donner Springs. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
Utah Crossroads Chapter President, George Ivory, standing inside the fence erected by the chapter to protect the site, describes Donner Spring, its history and current status to the group. The spring is located on the Stephens Ranch and is open to the public. The chapter has provided printed literature at the here in addition to the interpretive signage.
8. Made 10/18/97 , just east of Lucin, UT. Al Mulder Gets a Flat. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
No sooner had we started along the old roadbed when crackling over the CB came the message, "Flat tire!" We'd been warned about the possibility that old spikes from the railway could still be lying about and could puncture a tire with ease, but we weren't prepared for how many flat tires we would have and just how devastating most of the punctures were. Before the day was out our group of 15 vehicles had experienced 8 flats! The damage was so great that in most cases treads and sidewalls were shredded making repair of the tires impossible.
In this picture Al Mulder goes to work after stopping for someone else's flat and finding one of his own tires was leaking too. Al's was the gentlest of the day's flats - most were blowouts.
11. Made 10/18/97 at Terrace, UT about 25 miles east of Lucin, UT. Terrace. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
Looking approximately north. Terrace is west of Promontory Summit where the Central Pacific rails from the west joined the Union Pacific rails from the east. It was the maintenance and repair headquarters for the CPRR for its Salt Lake Division which encompassed the road from Wells, Nevada to Ogden, Utah. Though railroad use ended by about 1910, in its heyday Terrace not only boasted extensive railroad facilities including a full roundhouse but perhaps 1,000 inhabitants. Nine-tenths of the workers who built the CPRR were Chinese and estimates run as high as 500 such residents of Terrace at one time.
No structures remain at the site and like all the railroad installations along the grade Terrace has been extensively looted by bottle and artifact hunters. Deep holes dug by these vandals pit the landscape in every direction. Although artifacts remain, with the area now under active historic preservation management by the BLM and with the involvement of a concerned public, such depredations have decreased considerably in recent years.
The sign says:
TERRACE - 1869 - CA, 1910, MILE 702.1 FROM SAN FRANCISCO; 1153 FROM OMAHA
TERRACE BECAME A POPULATION CENTER FOR NW UTAH, SUPPORTING BUSINESSES, STORES, A SCHOOL, A WELLS FARGO OFFICE, A LIBRARY, A PUBLIC BATH, AND A JUSTICE OF THE PEACE (WHO ALSO RAN THE SALOON).
BUSINESS BUILDINGS LINED A WIDE AVENUE NORTH OF THE TRACKS WHILE THE MORE SCATTERED RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURES WERE GENERALLY TO THE SOUTH. ALTHOUGH ALL WATER IN TOWN WAS PIPED IN, THERE WAS A NICE TOWN SQUARE AND TREE - LINED STREETS IN THE RESIDENTIAL AREA.
WHEN THE LUCIN CUTOFF WAS COMPLETED IN 1904 AND THE MAINTENANCE SHOPS WERE MOVED TO CARLIN, NV, THE TOWN BEGAN TO DIE.
14. Made 10/18/97 a few miles east of Kelton, UT. The Pres. Gets a Flat. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
On this trip not even brand-new tires conferred presidential immunity on George Ivory, President of Utah Crossroads Chapter who gets set to change another ruined one. The only bit of good luck our group could claim for the day was that at least no one's vehicle was struck twice!
3. Made 10/18/97 at Crossroads kiosk site, ~20 miles North of Wendover, UT. Also Hastings Road. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
View looking north, Pilot Peak in the background. Al Mulder, at the site of the coming Utah Crossroads Chapter interpretive kiosk, points to important trail landmarks including nearby Bidwell pass.
6. Made 10/18/97 , just east of Lucin, UT. Salt Desert
from Donner Spring N. of Wendover, UT. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
These salt flats east of Donner Spring, 8-10 miles wide, were the last great, dry barrier on the Long Drive to be crossed before reaching sweet water. Far out on the salt, flagging, stuporous animals could sometimes smell the distant water for miles and had to be restrained from running toward the salvation they sensed. Exhausted and suffering men, women and children who had made the crossing finished these last miles with renewed hope. From Donner Spring many returned across the salt bearing water to slake the thirst of struggling comrades and animals and sometimes to save their lives.
9. Made 1869 in the Great Salt Lake Desert. Historical Photograph - Laying Track on Central Pacific RR near Lucin, UT. Photograph by Golden Spike National Historic Site in Rails East to Promontory.
Chinese "coolies" prepared the grade and Irish tracklayers put down the iron on the route across Utah toward the meeting of the rails at Promontory Summit. The Chinese were paid $30 - $35 per month and were credited with managing to save $20.
12. Made 10/18/97 a few miles east of Terrace, UT. Another @#! Flat! Photograph by Steve Berlin.
Don't let the smile for the camera fool you. Flat tires were no fun. Everyone was impressed at how destructive the rips caused by the big railway spikes were. In the dust and poor contrast, drivers in our caravan could see only a small fraction of the spikes in the road. We met and talked with travelers coming the other way on low-to-the-ground, all-terrain vehicles. From their closer perspective on the road they were able to profess amazement at the number of spikes they were seeing along the route. The problem might have been recent grading along the old railbed. Our BLM guide makes several trips annually across the grade and could remember having only one flat tire over a several-year period.
15. Made 10/18/97 about 24 miles west of Promontory Summit UT. Final Miles. Photograph by Steve Berlin.
Toward the end of the day, as the shadows lengthened and we neared Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory Summit colors deepened and we left behind the scattered vegetation of the semi-desert and traveled through thick grease-wood and bunch grass.
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