The Union Pacific Railroad Part 1 - Cheyenne, WY - Lincoln Highway on Waymarking.com

The plaque says, "The story of the Union Pacific Railroad is also a story of Wyoming and particularly Cheyenne. One cannot be told without the telling of the other. It is no exaggeration to say that Cheyenne, Fort D.A. Russell (now F.E. Warren Air Force Base), and the Wyoming Territory were all children of the Union Pacific (UP).

In 1863, the Pacific Railroad Act was approved by Congress and signed into law by then President Abraham Lincoln, an enthusiastic supporter of railroads. Congress had finally decided on a route following the Platte River Valley and two railroad companies were chartered. The Union Pacific (UP) would lay track westward from Omaha, while the Central Pacific (CP) would lay track eastward from Sacramento and they would meet someplace in between. Nearly 1800 miles separated these two points. A contest quickly developed to see which company could lay the most track the fastest. Land grants to the Railroads were a major incentive as they were based on miles of track laid. not until late 1865, however, did workers lay the first rail in Omaha for there had been a shortage of money, materials and men due to the U.S. Civil War.

The westward advance of the Transcontinental Railroad brought UP Chief engineer General Grenville M. Dodge and a survey party to this area in the summer of 1867 for the purpose of locating a base or "division point" for the railroad. After thoroughly investigating the area, Dodge decided to locate the point at the site of the proposed crossing of Crow Creek. The name "Cheyenne" was selected by the survey party members and was in honor of a fierce Indian tribe of the area. Dodge intended Cheyenne to be one of the most important railroad cities in North America. Massive railroad shops and facilities would be built later to maintain the railroad's equipment. He dodge himself conducted the survey of the town and many of its Avenues were named for ranking UP officials or Army officers that he knew. Some of those downtown Avenues have since been renamed. One important reason that Dodge located the UP division point at present-day Cheyenne is that this is where the gradual slope of the prairie meets the steepening grades of the Laramie Mountains )presently known as the Black Hills). The geographic feature known as "the gangplank" allowed for a reasonable crossing of the mountains at Sherman Pass, named for Civil War General Sherman

Part 1
Side B
The first steam-powered locomotive reached Cheyenne November 14, 1867. By 1868 the community boasted 3,000 to 4,000 residents, plus businesses, schools, churches and newspapers. The UP's stone roundhouse was the first permanent structure (non-wood) built in town. The City's phenomenal growth produced its nickname, "The Magic City of the Plains," as it seemingly developed by magic. Wyoming became a new territory less than nine months later, when president Andrew Johnson signed the Wyoming Organic Act on July 25, 1868. Of course, Cheyenne was its Territorial Capital. Most of the land for the new Wyoming Territory came from the Dakota Territory, but Utah and Idaho Territories also contributed land.

When the railroad came to Cheyenne, the Army also came and established Fort D.A. Russell in order to protect the UP's workers. The threat of Indian attacks was real then as Southeastern Wyoming was the traditional hunting grounds of the Sioux and the Cheyenne, and they were outraged at the encroachment of the Iron Horse and all that came with it. As the UP construction crews reached the summit of the Laramie Mountains to build Sherman Station, the news traveled around the world. Congratulations poured in, because at over 8,000 feet above sea level, this was the highest point on the entire transcontinental railroad route.

The UP faced its greatest natural obstacle about three miles west of Sherman. Over geologic time, Dale Creek had cut an almost perpendicular gorge measuring about 150 feet deep and 650 feet across. In 1867-1868, workers built a wooden trestle across the chasm. The Dale Creek Trestle was the highest and most dangerous crossing on the UP line, and the highest railway bridge in the world at the time.

Construction took 2,580 ties, 352 rails, 5,500 spikes, 704 fishplates, and 1,408 bolts to complete one mile of track. Multiply this by 1,800 to understand the enormity of it all. Simply put, the building of the Transcontinental Railroad was America's most ambitious enterprise and greatest engineering achievement of the post Civil War 19th Century."

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