Epes Randolph - Tucson, AZ
Posted by: 
bluesnote
Assisted by: Max and 99
N 32° 12.865 W 110° 55.105
12S E 507687 N 3564205
Memorial Plaza and bust of Epes Randolph, Tucson engineer and pioneer.
Waymark Code: WMA1CQ
Location: Arizona, United States
Date Posted: 10/31/2010
Views: 15
Created From:
[Deleted Waymark] - posted by
Max and 99
Text on monument:
Epes Randolph - Bridge Builder
A whirlwind of power of energy, Epes Randolph completed construction of the __ Bridge (picture in gallery) between Cincinatti, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky in 188, it proved a crowning glory of his career in the East. Born in Lunenburg County, Virginia in 1866, the dynamic railroad leader and civil engineer built several other bridges in the region and earned professional acclaim.
Epes and his wife, Eleanor, moved to Tucson in 1895, when lung damage forced him to adopt a dry climate. Local superintendent of the Southern Pacific Railroad, Randolph gathered around him a host of bright, influential friends and soon dominated industry, mining, and politics in Arizona. The couple grew to love Tucson and called it home for the rest of their lives.
Santa Rita Hotel
"Forty-five years I have labored. The laboring man, whoever he may be and however he may labor, with head or hands, has my sincere sympathies and utmost goodwill." - Epes Randolph
Epes Randolph financed Tucson's premier hostelry, the Santa Rita Hotel with Levi H. Manning in 1903. He also invested in banks, railroads, and mines across Arizona and Mexico, including the rich King of Arizona (KofA) gold mine near Yuma. A member of the state Board of Regents from 1919 to 1921, Randolph rose to honorary 33rd degree Mason and presided over Tucson's Old Pueblo Club.
Closing the Colorado River Breach
Thundering Colorado River floodwaters swamped California's Imperial Valley in 1905, and Southern Pacific head E.H. Harriman summoned Epes Randolph. Deemed a "desperate situation and one without engineering parallel," the flood endangered 2,600 settlers and one-hundred thousand cultivated acres. When none of the almost fifty celebrated engineers he consulted could agree upon a solution, Randolph ordered dumping thousands of tons of rock into the river's half-mile breach. From the sick-bed of his private car, the Pocahontas, he directed work crews of four hundred Pima, Yuma, Maricopa, Cocopa, Diegueno,and Tohono O'odham men, who finally closed the gash in the Colorado's bank on February 10, 1907.
Southern Pacific Railroad Map
Epes commanded the "Randolph Lines" that connected Phoenix and Southern Arizona's outlying communities with Tucson. He also headed the Southern Pacific Railroad's push through the rough barranca country south of Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico toward Guadaljara. Randolph envisioned a great agricultural and mineral bonanza along Mexico's western coast, but Revolution (1910-1917) destroyed his dream. At this death, all the wheels on the two railroads he controlled, the Arizona Eastern and Ferrocarril Sud-Pacifico de Mexico, stopped for one minute in tribute. Randolph's caring and generous spirit spurred his employees to honor the faith and love he built in the hearts of his fellow men for more than a quarter-century after he died, August 22, 1921.
URL of the statue: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
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