Utah and Northern Railway
Overview | |
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Headquarters | standard gauge |
Previous gauge | originally 3 ft (914 mm) gauge |
The Utah & Northern Railway is a defunct
The original 75 miles (121 km) of the Utah Northern Railroad (later named Utah & Northern Railway) was conceived and built by the Mormons. It was a
Robber baron Jay Gould transformed the Utah Northern. He and Union Pacific acquired the Utah Northern Railroad, changing the name to the Utah & Northern Railway and infused the railroad with capital.[5] Big business knew that an electrical age was coming and that the demand for copper products was putting pressure on copper prices.[6] They knew that there were rich copper deposits at the mines near Butte, Montana. Union Pacific quickly resumed construction on the Utah & Northern Railway after purchase in April 1878. Jay Gould invested personal money to get construction started just beyond Franklin in the fall of 1877.[5] The new plan was not to build the road to Soda Springs, but to build a longer road on a direct route through the Cache Valley, then north across eastern Idaho and north across western Montana to Butte, Montana. In the first year of construction, they reached Eagle Rock (now Idaho Falls, Idaho), 120 miles (190 km) north of the Utah/Idaho border, where they built a bridge across the Snake River in early 1879.[7] In the second year, they added another 90 miles (140 km) of track and crossed the continental divide at the Idaho/Montana border. After three and a half years of construction, before the close of 1881, they completed the additional 120 miles (190 km) of road to Butte, Montana. Butte became the largest copper producing city in the world and Butte's population, by some estimates, grew to nearly 100,000. This made Butte, with its "Copper Kings," the second largest city in the West with more influence than Salt Lake City, Denver, Sacramento, Seattle, or Portland. Only San Francisco remained larger and more important. Butte, with its large-scale mining and smelting operations, was dubbed the Pittsburg of the West.[6]
The Utah & Northern was switched from
The railroad operated successfully for several years and finally became a branch of the Union Pacific Railroad.See also
- Utah Central Railroad (1869–81)
- Utah Southern Railroad (1871–81)
- Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway
References
- ^ Ferrell, Hauck & Myers 1981, pp. 9–10
- ^ Madsen 1980, pp. 33–36
- ^ Ferrell, Hauck & Myers 1981, p. 14
- ^ Ferrell, Hauck & Myers 1981, p. 12
- ^ a b Ferrell, Hauck & Myers 1981, p. 31
- ^ a b Ives, Stephen (director) (2004). The West (Motion picture).
- ^ "Utah and Northern". Deseret News. July 7, 1879. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Union Pacific Railroad Track Profile (Report). February 11, 2004.[full citation needed]
- ^ Ferrell, Hauck & Myers 1981, pp. 55–56
Bibliography
- Ferrell, Mallory Hope; Hauck, Cornelius W.; Myers, Rex C. (1981). Colorado Rail Annual No. 15. Colorado Railroad Museum. ISBN 978-0918654151.
- Madsen, Brigham D. (1980). The Northern Shoshoni (First ed.). Caxton Press. ISBN 978-0870042669.
External links
- Ogden Rails: Utah Northern, Utah & Northern (with citations)