Cheyenne Saturday - Empty-Grave Extended Edition (15 page)

Caption 03...
Brigadier General Grenville M. Dodge circa 1863. Dodge was designated chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad.

Caption 04...
Samuel Skerry Montague was chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad. He conducted extensive surveys across Nevada and Utah, going as far east as Green River, Wyoming.

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General Dodge’s words regarding the Indian threat and the deaths of two of his best survey chiefs—Percy T. Brown and L. L. Hills:

“In the spring of 1867 there was a party in the field under L. L. Hills, running a line east from the base of the Rocky Mountains. The first word I received of it was through the commanding officer at Camp Collins, who had served under me when I commanded the department. He informed me that a young man named J. M. Eddy had brought the party into that post, its chief having been killed in a fight with the Indians. I enquired who Eddy was and was informed that he was an axman in the party, and had served under me in the civil war. . . . The fight in which Mr. Hills, the chief, was killed occurred some six miles east of Cheyenne, and after the leader was lost young Eddy rallied the party and by force of his own character took it into Camp Collins. Of course I immediately promoted him.”

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Caption 05...
The Central Pacific line running through Green River, Wyoming.

Caption 06...
Central Pacific workers laying track. Nevada, 1868.

Caption 07...
Central Pacific crew laying track near the Humbolt River. Nevada, 1868.

Caption 08...
Laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad Company. Chinese immigrants became the prime source of manpower. In 1868, the total number of  Chinese that had worked  for the railroad was over 12,000—they represented more than 80% of the entire Central Pacific work force.

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The Central Pacific Railroad Company experienced a serious labor shortage in 1865. There was enough work for 4000 men but the company had difficulty keeping even 800 workers at a time. The majority of this early work force was made up of Irish immigrants. Prejudices of the day led recruiters to believe the Irish spent all their earnings on liquor and the Chinese were unreliable. Contractors begrudgingly hired fifty Chinese workers to quell a wage dispute in which a large crew of Irish workers threatened to walk out. Those fifty workers proved themselves and sparked a hiring frenzy—job advertisements showed up as far away as the Canton Province, China.

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Teams often consisted of twenty Chinese workers and one white foreman, although team size grew for difficult stretches of grading and laying track. Chinese employees earned $30 a month, minus the cost of food and board. The Irish earned $35 a month with board provided at no charge.

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Caption 09...
Wagon train following behind the builders of the Transcontinental Railroad and responsible for building up settlements along the line.

Caption 10...
Track gang curving rail in Ten-Mile Canyon along the Humbolt River in Nevada, 1867.

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Crude methods were employed when track had to be curved. The 56 pound yard iron rail, measuring 32 feet in length, was laid across two railroad ties spaced 25 feet apart. Eight workers would stand on the rail as the hammer-man struck with a heavy sledge. The weight of the men provided just enough spring to bend the rail slightly. The position of hammer-man required great skill and strength. They were responsible for measuring the curves by sight and determining where a strike was needed to balance the rail.

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Bad weather was a continuing challenge. The winter of 1866 brought forty-four snowstorms, avalanches, and—for the crews tunneling through mountains—the excruciating job of clearing ice and rubble at the entry point. The snow pack at the top of the Sierra Nevadas could reach a depth of eighteen feet. Camp 4, known as Strong’s Mountain Camp was hit by a slide that wiped out two gangs of tunnelers working Tunnels 11 and 12 as well as a gang of culvert men. Avalanches aside, camps in these violent weather conditions offered workers little respite from a day on the rail head.

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Caption 11...
Eadward Muybridge, a prominent English photographer, documented some of the brilliant engineering and displays of brute strength along the Central Pacific line. 

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Crews of workers drove spikes into the solid granite and used black powder to blast their way through—inch by inch. One of the most impressive feats of engineering was Tunnel 6, which bored its way through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Four teams stepped up to that task; one at the east and west sides, and one going each way out from the middle—accessible by a vertical shaft.  Engineers were so accurate they discovered the tunnel was off by only two inches when the east and west tunnels converged and broke through.

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