Men, Mules & Machinery - Spanish Creek Bridge Overlook, CA - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

One of six history signs at the Spanish Creek Bridge Overlook on CA. Hwy. 89/70
Text of Sign:

MEN, Mules & MACHINERY
Changing the Face of the Feather River Canyon

Opportunity Knocks for the Utah Construction Company
In 1905, the Utah Construction Company of Ogden, Utah, was awarded the Western Pacific Railroad contract to build the Feather River Route between Oakland, California and Salt Lake City, Utah. The $22 million contract was very challenging, but proved to be profitable and led to the Utah Construction Company completing many other large scale projects including Hoover Dam and the Alaska Highway. Under the leadership of David Eccles, the Utah Construction Company became one of the most important engineering firms in the U.S. and Mexico.

From Trails to Rails
The Feather River Canyon posed a series of engineering and logistical challenges for the Utah Construction Company, builder of the Western Pacific Railroad.
For mush of the distance through the rugged canyon, there were no roads and the old Gold Rush era trail system that did exist did not serve the needs of the company. So, the first thing the company did was set up small work camps throughout the canyon as bases for the surveyors.
The Utah Construction Company camps served as local supply centers for first building the wagon road and later the actual railroad. The camps were very simple by today’s standards, with the crew sleeping on hay mattresses in tents, while their bosses slept on bunks. Card games such as poker tended to fill the leisure hours.

Turn of the Century Billboards
The Utah Construction Company maintained a reputation for being a “good feeder,” but this did not stop the advertisement of non-company goods and supplies on whatever was handy, in this case — a bed sheet.

Group that erected the marker: U.S. Forest Service & Caltrans Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: On Hwy 89/70 at Spanish Creek Bridge Overlook URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the marker, preferably including yourself or your GPSr in the photo. A very detailed description of your visit may be substituted for a photo. In any case please provide a description of your visit. A description of only "Visited" or "Saw it while on vacation" by anyone other than the person creating the waymark may be deleted by the waymark owner or the category officers.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   10/11/2016 Volcanoguy visited it