On an earlier blog post, which you may find by CLICKING HERE, I talked about the Chinese laborers who worked years grading, using
explosives, and building track for the Central Pacific Railroad through the
Sierra Nevada Mountains—a construction feat many engineers of the 1800s said
could not be done.
August 28, 1867 – The Sierra Nevada Mountains were finally
"conquered" by the Central Pacific Railroad, after almost five years
of sustained construction effort by its mainly Chinese crew about 10,000
strong, with the successful completion at Donner Pass of its 1,659-foot (506 m)
Tunnel #6 (a.k.a. the "Summit Tunnel").
December 1, 1867 - Central Pacific opened to Summit of
the Sierra Nevada for a total of 105 miles.
June 18, 1868 - The first passenger train crosses the
Sierra Nevada to Lake's Crossing (modern day Reno, Nevada) at the eastern foot
of the Sierra in Nevada.
However, the CPRR did not stop at eastern foot of these mountains. The year 1868 was one
of feverish activity for both railroads. Two years earlier, the Central Pacific
has successfully lobbied Congress to add an additional Amendment to the
Railroad Act. The CPRR was no longer bound by a 150 mile limit from the
California border, and the companies were permitted to grade 300 miles ahead of
the end of track with the meeting point still undetermined.
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| Last remaining passenger car at Promontory Summit, May 10, 1869. Note the terrain. |
The two railroad companies—Central Pacific RR and Union
Pacific RR—could draw two-thirds of the government bonds as soon as the grade
had been completed and before the track was laid. Congress had utilized the
power of competition within the free enterprise system to speed construction.
Both railroads took advantage of this provision. Once they reached the
Promontory Mountains in Utah, they both kept grading track while they passed
each other, sometimes within shouting distance. For the sake of the money
involved, they probably would have continue building until they reached the
opposite oceans if some sane heads in Washington D.C. had not called a stop to
the travesty and insisted on a central meeting place.
Once they reached the relatively flat country of Nevada,
Charles Crocker, the CPRR construction manager, announced a construction goal
of a mile of track every working day. The route ahead was over a terrain that
offered none of the difficulties encountered in the mountains, and the "mile-a-day" push went into high gear. Over 10,000 employees
responded with almost superhuman effort. Approximately six thousand horses
sped the work along. Canvas towns sprang up as the railhead was pushed steadily
eastward. On October 1, 1868, the line reached Winnemucca, 325 miles from
Sacramento.
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| End of track taken in 1868 in Nevada |
They continued through the territories of Nevada and
Utah. From
1865 to 1869, as many as 20,000 Chinese laborers worked on the Central Pacific
Railroad, which ran from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah.
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| Construction train in Alkali desert - ctsy of Union Pacific RR Museum, Ogden, Utah |
I did not find a lot of information about the work effort
through this region. What I know from traveling along Interstate I-80 which
pretty much follows the route of the railroad tracks (as well as the earlier California
Trail and the First Continental Telegraph) is that there is a whole lot of desert and very little water or
vegetation other than scrubby sage in places. Out of necessity because the railroad needed water for its steam engines, the track was laid as close to water sources as possible.
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| Railroad in Nevada 2018, early summer after an exceptionally wet spring |
Chinese
Railroad Workers
Because of discrimination, the tens of thousands of Chinese
workers—at one point constituting over 80% of Central Pacific's workforce (some
estimate as much as 90%)—have been mostly forgotten, despite their contribution
to an enormous feat of civil engineering and the terrible hardships they
endured. While the Irish workers were paid $35 per month and provided housing,
the Chinese were only paid at first $27 and then $30 per month but not provided
housing. All of this in spite of the freezing temperatures, avalanches, and the
dangers of their work that cost perhaps thousands of their lives. The Chinese
workers likely put up with these injustices because many of them had come from
Guangdong Province in China, which at the time was stricken with poverty and
political upheaval. To them, laying tracks for the transcontinental railroad
might have seemed a better place to be than back home.
Although originally, there was speculation that the Chinese
were too small in stature to make good rail workers, this group proved all the
nay-sayers wrong. The Chinese took daily sponge baths.
Since they drank only tea made from boiled water, they were not subject to the
diseases caused by drinking from contaminated streams and lakes. Young Chinese
employees carried tea to the workers by means of yokes over their shoulders
with clean recycled powder kegs hanging from each end. Thus, their tea was
known as “powder tea.”
They also had their own cooks, and their healthful provisions
were purchased from Chinese merchants. While the Americans dined on boiled beef
and potatoes, beans, and coffee, the Chinese ate a variety of food, including
oysters, fish, abalone, Oriental fruits, and scores of vegetables, including
bamboo sprouts, seaweed, and mushrooms. Although they used opium on Sundays,
they did not drink alcohol and returned to work on Mondays free of the
hangovers that plagued their American counterparts. As a whole, the Chinese remained healthy.
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| Chinese Railroad Workers |
Unfortunately, even though the Chinese workers had been
essential to the success of building the Central Pacific Railroad, the owners
and managers had no more respect or consideration for these laborers than most
Americans. Once the railroad was completed, the workers were dismissed from
employment without provisions to transport them back to California. They were
forced to make their own way.
(Author’s note: Many of them chose to stay in Utah, even
working their way down to Salt Lake City and probably points south. While perusing
the microfilm of the early Salt Lake County death records for death and burial information on my
great-great grandparents as well as other family members, I noticed
several entries over the decades for single Chinese men who had found work in
the county.)
I found this interesting personal story in Museum Memories, Volume 1, published by
the Daughters of Utah Pioneers:
“Nearly all of the
Chinese laborers saved money while working for the Central Pacific. Some
returned to China with their savings, and other settled in California where
they raised families and became an integral part of the population.
“Frank Woo said that
his great-grandfather saved almost every cent that he earned while employed by
the railroad and took it home to China. While working in Nevada and Utah, he
raised chickens which were able to live off the land. Woo traded eggs for rice
and other foods. He improved his diet by eating red berries from the wolfberry
plant, which was indigenous to the Great Basin. He understood herbal medicine
and knew the pharmaceutical properties of native plants. For example, he used
dandelions to heal bruises. He obtained unclaimed clothing from his buddies who
were doing laundry for the construction crews.”
CPRR
Locomotives
Until the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad and
the Central Pacific Railroad's opening of its own shops, all locomotives had to
be purchased by builders in the northeastern U.S. The engines had to be
dismantled, loaded on a ship, which would embark on a four-month journey that
went around South America's Cape Horn until arriving in Sacramento where the
locomotives would be unloaded, re-assembled, and placed in service.
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| Governor Stanford 4-4-0 locomotive |
The Central Pacific's first three locomotives were of
the then common 4-4-0 type. With the start of the American Civil War in the
East, the CPRR had difficulty acquiring engines from eastern builders. What was
available to them were the smaller 4-2-4 or 4-2-2 models.
 |
| CPRR#113 FALCON, a Danforth 4-4-0, at Argenta, Nevada, March 1, 1869 (Photo: J.B. Silvis) |
The CPRR eventually purchased 53 miles of UPRR-built grade
from Promontory Summit to Ogden, Utah Territory, which became the interchange
point between trains of the two roads.
Escape from Gold Mountain will
initially be offered on more than one vendor. The release day is scheduled for
September 4, 2019. It is currently on a pre-order sale on both Amazon and
Barnes & Noble. On September 5th, the book will move to its regular ebook
price. If you are a Nook reader, the book will only be available for Nook
purchase for a short time before it will be offered digitally exclusively on
Amazon and in the Kindle Unlimited program.
The book will also be offered in print format and will continue to be offered for sale as a paperback on both vendors.
Here
are the purchase links:
Sources:
Museum Memories, Volume 1 (Salt Lake City, Utah: International Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 2009), Pgs. 404-407.
Wikipedia
