The Railways As Trail Blazers – Legends of America
Railroads: Blazing Trails Across the American West
Okay, picture this: It’s the mid-1800s in America. The country’s booming, but there’s a problem. The East Coast is bustling, and the West Coast is full of promise, but getting between them? That’s a whole different story. That’s where the railroads come in.
Bridging the Gap: The Transcontinental Dream
Even before the Civil War, people knew that linking the East and West Coasts by rail was a game-changer. Everyone was pushing Congress to make it happen, offering land and money to get the project rolling. But there was a snag: slavery. Southern states wanted a route through Texas to the Pacific, while Northerners preferred a more central path.
The North eventually got its way during the war. In 1862, Congress greenlit the project, setting up companies to build a line from the Missouri River to California. They also offered land and loans to help out.
The Central Pacific Railroad, led by Leland Stanford, started building from the West. They got a ton of support from the Mormons in Utah, the California state government, ranchers, miners, business owners, and a huge workforce of Chinese laborers.
On the other side, the Union Pacific Railroad, starting in Omaha, Nebraska, was built mostly by Civil War veterans and immigrants from Ireland and Germany. In 1869, the two lines finally met near Ogden, Utah. It was a massive celebration when they drove the last spike, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
More Tracks, More Connections
Other railroads to the Pacific were planned around the same time. After the economic downturn of 1873, things slowed down, but by the end of the decade, construction was back in full swing. By 1883, a bunch of railway projects had wrapped up.
In February, trains started running from New Orleans, Louisiana, through Texas and Arizona, all the way to San Francisco, California. This was thanks to a partnership between the Texas Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads. In September, the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed in Montana, connecting Lake Superior to Puget Sound. That same year, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad opened a third line to the Pacific, linking Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Needles, California, with San Francisco. It seemed like all the wildest dreams of railroad folks were coming true.
Building the West, One Track at a Time
Back East, railroads usually followed where people already lived. But out West, it was often the other way around. Railroad companies would plan out towns before even laying the tracks. They’d send people out to the Midwest, East Coast cities, and Southern states to talk about the awesome opportunities out West. Then, they’d load up trains with new settlers and their stuff and take them out to the Dakotas and beyond.
The development of the West wasn’t just a slow, natural process. It was driven by ambitious people who saw a chance to make money and build something amazing. They bought up huge tracts of land, got even more from the government, and used the latest technology to overcome any obstacle in their path.
They built towns, connected them with railroads and steamships, and then brought in the people to fill them. As one saying went, "the frontier speculator paved the way for the frontier agriculturalist who had to be near a market before he could farm."
One advertisement from that time shows the spirit of this approach: "This extension will run 42 miles from York, northeast through the Island Lake country, and will have five good North Dakota towns. The stations on the line will be well-equipped with elevators and constructed and ready for operation at the commencement of the grain season. Prospective merchants have actively secured desirable locations at the different towns on the line. There are still opportunities for hotels, general merchandise, hardware, furniture, drug stores, etc."
James J. Hill: A Railroad Visionary
James J. Hill, who was behind the Great Northern and other railroads, was a major player in all of this. He knew that railroads needed people and goods to be successful. So, he launched a publicity campaign in states like Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. His agents spread the word about the opportunities in the West, saying things like:
"You see your children come out of school with no chance to get farms of their own because the cost of land in your older part of the country is so high that you can’t afford to buy land to start your sons out in life around you. They have to go to the cities to make a living, become laborers in the mills, or be hired as farmhands. There is no future for them there. If you are doing well where you are and can safeguard your children’s future and see them prosper around you, don’t leave here. But if you want independence, if you are renting your land, if the money-lender is carrying you along, and you are running behind year after year, you can do no worse by moving… You farmers talk of free trade and protection and what this or that political party will do for you. Why don’t you vote for a homestead for yourself? That is the only thing Uncle Sam will ever give you. Jim Hill hasn’t an acre of land to sell you. We are not in the real estate business. We don’t want you to go out West and make a failure of it because the rates at which we haul you and your goods make the first transaction a loss. We must have landless men for a manless land."
Unlike steamship companies that just wanted to sell tickets, Hill wanted to create permanent settlements that would produce, manufacture, and use the railroads. He offered low fares and let people bring a lot of livestock and furniture for free.
In 1894, a group of home seekers left Indiana in 14 passenger cars and 48 freight cars, packed with people, their belongings, and their animals. In the next ten years, 100,000 people from the Midwest and South moved West, bringing eight million acres of land into cultivation.
Hill also cared about making sure his settlers were successful. He helped them with things like drainage and irrigation, road improvements, better livestock, and scientific farming. He even helped establish banks to provide credit. He knew that if the people prospered, the railroads would too.
Hill was always looking for ways to increase traffic on the railroads. He wanted full cars going in both directions and no wheat sitting in warehouses. So, he looked to Asia and Europe as potential markets for American goods. He sent agents to China and Japan to find out what they needed and what they could offer in exchange. He even bought two massive ships to facilitate trade across the Pacific.
When some Japanese businessmen came to the United States to buy steel rails, Hill convinced them to buy American and ship them on American railroads and ships. He helped turn the prairies into farmland and lived to see the wheat fields of North Dakota connected to factories in England and ports in Japan.
In the end, the railroads weren’t just about tracks and trains. They were about connecting people, creating communities, and building a new America.