103

X. The Denver-Cheyenne Line (Denver Pacific R. R.) 117

XI. History of the Line since its Completion, 123

XII. The Central Pacific Railroad, 133

APPENDIX.

(1) Roster of Officials, 141

(2) Statistics, 146

(3) Nomenclature, 148

(4) Paddy Miles' Ride, 153

(5) Copy Report Engineer in Charge of Survey, 157

Preface

For some reason the people of today are not nearly as familiar with
the achievements of the last fifty years as they are with those of
earlier days.

The school boy can glibly recount the story of Columbus, William Penn,
or Washington, but asked about the events leading up to the settlement
of the West will know nothing of them and will probably reply "they
don't teach us that in our school"--and it is true. Outside of the
names of our presidents, the Rebellion, and the Spanish-American War,
there is practically nothing of the events of the last fifty years in
our school histories, and this is certainly wrong. "Peace hath her
victories as well as War," and it is to the end that one of the great
achievements of the last century may become better known that this
account of the first great Pacific Railroad was written.

It was just as great an event for Lewis and Clark to cross the Rockies
as it was for Columbus to cross the Atlantic. The Mormons not only
made friends with the Indians as did Penn, but they also "made the
desert to blossom as the rose," and Washington's battles at Princeton,
White Plains, and Yorktown were but little more momentus in their
results than Sandy Forsythe's on the Republican, Custer's on the
Washita, or Crook's in the Sierra Madre.

The construction of the Union Pacific Railroad was of greater
importance to the people of the United States than the inauguration of
steamship service across the Atlantic or the laying of the Atlantic
Telegraph. Yet the one has been heralded from time to time and the
other allowed to sink into temporary obscurity.

To make good Americans of the coming generation all that is necessary
is to make them proud of American achievements and the West was and is
a field full of such.

The building of the Pacific Railroad was one of the great works of
man. Its promoters were men of small means and little or no financial
backing outs