route of the fur traders and
trappers, the emigrant, the Overland Stage, and the Pony Express, and
if these various interests had agreed as to this being the shortest
and best route it was evident there were good and sufficient reasons
for their decision, it being incontrovertible that it was the shortest
one that reached the desired territory. Especially as their decision
was reinforced by the result of numerous surveys made by the
Government.

The bill creating the Union Pacific Railroad was known as the "Curtis
Bill" from its author, Congressman S. R. Curtis of Iowa. It carried
the title of "An Act to aid in the construction of a railroad and
telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean and to
secure to the United States Government, the use thereof for postal,
military, and other purposes."

This act passed the Senate, June 20th, 1862, by a vote of thirty-five
to two and became a law July 1st, of that same year. In addition to
creating the Union Pacific Railroad Company it also authorized the
Central Pacific Railroad Company to build a railroad from Sacramento
to the eastern boundary of California, where it was to connect with
the Union Pacific Railroad. The bill also recognized a Company
chartered by the legislature of Kansas under the name of the
Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railway Company, later known as the
Kansas Pacific Railway. This latter line was to be built from
Leavenworth west to a junction with the Union Pacific Railroad at or
near the hundredth Meridian or about two hundred and fifty miles west
of Omaha.

The principal features of the bill so far as the Union Pacific
Railroad were concerned, were, the creation of a Board of
Commissioners consisting of one hundred and fifty-eight commissioners
to represent the interest of the United States Government and who were
to be named by the Secretary of the Interior. These were to constitute
a preliminary organization.

The Union Pacific Railroad proper was to commence at a point on the
hundredth Meridian, west of Greenwich, between the Valley of the
Platte River on the north and the Valley on the Republican River on
the south, with branch lines to be known as the Iowa Branch from said
point to the Missouri River. On the west it was to extend to the
Eastern boundary of California, where it was to connect with the
Central Pacific Railroad.

The Capital stock of the Company was to consist of ten thousand shares
at one thousand dollars ea