Rediscovering Utah's Abandoned Tracks: Unmasking the Reality of the Transcontinental Railroad
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 เม.ย. 2022
- In this video, we explore the fascinating history and archaeology of Terrace, a ghost town in the Utah desert that was once home to hundreds of Chinese immigrants who helped build the first transcontinental railroad in the 19th century. We visit the site of the Last Spike, where the eastward and westward tracks were joined in 1869, and see the original railroad grade and replica locomotives. We also learn about the artifacts and structures that have been uncovered by researchers, revealing the lives and culture of the railroad workers and the challenges they faced in this harsh environment. Join us as we discover the traces of a forgotten chapter of American history.
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#goldenspike #transcontinentalrailroad #ghostowns #history #trains
With regional scarcity of population in those early pioneering days of the west, cannot imagine how isolated these settlers felt! It's still a wilderness from what your video shows.
That's an interesting point. I think living in Terrace, or Kelton wasn't as remote as it appears today because you had large numbers of people constantly coming and going practically every day. The townspeople were connected to larger population centers and the goods and news that flowed between them. Today however, Terrace is truly remote, with no phones, no radios, and no way to communicate with people except via satellite phone.
This was a truly wonderful video, I learned a lot! It's not easy to find videos showcasing the abandoned remnants of the original transcontinental railroad, but this one did a great job of it. Thank you so much for sharing, and I look forward to more videos! I especially loved how educational the video was, packed full of knowledge regarding the long-since abandoned towns, and way stations.
You are an excellent teacher sir. I wish you would have taught me 55 years ago. Thank you very much.
You did a really good job with this. The aerial view of the turntable and roundhouse area was excellent! You could really see the outlines of where they stood. It was my favorite part of the video.
Thanks for the kind comment and valuable feedback!
Nice video, it’s nice to know that this grade has been “preserved”. Th UP and CP graded past each other for about 250 miles. The cave you mentioned at the beginning was known as “China Cave”, reason unknown. The blasting agent used by the workers was black powder, dynamite wasn’t developed until the mid to late 1890’s by Nobel. Nitroglycerin was tried, but abandoned after some very horrific accidents on the CP. The explosive is very unstable and unpredictable. The explosive was prepared on sight and often the “chemist” while preparing the mixture would “disappear” in a massive explosion, many men were lost using the mixture, even though, when used the workers could gain 3ft with a single blast, versus the one foot with black powder in the hard granite of the Sierras.
Interesting! Thanks for the info.
Just for your information about the time that they started building the transcontinental railroad, was when the shift began from iron rails (early locomotives were called iron horses) to steel rails. Also during this time, the railroad engines became heavier and therefore, they needed larger rails. Currently, most mainline railroads use a 130 pounds per yard rails . Though some sidings are as lite as a hundred pounds or less. Back then the rails were as light as sixty pounds per yard. Steel rails of course lasted far longer than the iron rails. I am mentioning this because you showed several cattle grates made with rails. Some rail road workers could look at those grates and tell you about when the rails were made and whether they were iron or steel. When they took up the old iron rails, they had to take them back and melt them. down and turn them into steel.
Thanks for the additional information about the rails. The Golden Spike National Historic Park has original rails from 1869 and looking at them, it's amazing to think they managed to support such heavy vehicles.
great bit of history *LIKED* and *SUBSCRIBED* -- LT
Newly subscribed and new to your channel!
A lot of history gone, and a load of hard work to produce. We hear and see the programmes that touch on the two railroads meeting as well as that golden spike but I’ve never seen the railroad as a separate subject - thank you!
Regards from UK.
Thanks for the kind comment and for subscribing!
Imagine working super long days to exhaustion only to come home and dig your house on what little time you had to sleep.
New sub here! Great footage and I too learned a lot about this long lost history. I need to drive this lonely road someday and see all of this! Thanks for your time and effort putting this video together. I binge watched all of your videos already about the ghost towns. Awesome!
Thanks for watching and for the sub!
This video is so well done. You have a great future in video production if that's what you want to do. Thanks for going to all the work to put this together and sharing it with us! I made it to Promintory for the May 10 2019 celebration of the final spike and looked west, wondering if it was possible to get out there. Officials were discouraging people from doing so, I assume because there were several thousand people at the event and they didn't want history damaged. So I am surprised to see there is such a good trail and that it is right on the road bed the original trains took! That area is very barren...I am guessing they dug wells to get to water, which may not have been too deep as the Salt Lake is so close. Like great documentaries always do, you awaken even further curiosities about how the building of the Central Pacific was accomplished and what it was like to live there at that time. Thanks!!!!
Thanks for the kind comment!
I read, it may have been in Empire Express, that where the lines overran each other, they didn't bother notifying the other team that they were blasting and often rocks and debris would rain down on the other team. CP had the high ground through Promontory so it was the UP crews who got the brunt of the debris.
They did build the tracks past each other and would keep going until the government stepped in and made them pick Promontory as the junction point. After it was agreed that the exchange point would be moved to Ogden where shops could be built. I read they graded almost 200 miles past each other in Utah.
The real irony was, some of these crews were men of the “Mormon” Church which had contracted for construction work on BOTH lines!
@@johnbeck3270note also that Union Pacific’s Credit Mobilier who’s held the master agreement never paid the contracted Utah,workers
Loved it but would also love to see you do more of the trail in the future.
Thanks for the feed back.
Great job! You hard work trying to find the very truth what actually happened, being done under what environments when the railroad was built, maintained. Really appreciated your effort on preserving and passing the history!
This was fantastic. I have always had a strong interest in the history of the railroad. It’s sad that all that hard work has been dismantled. I’ve always been so fascinated by how hard people had to be in those days to survive. Most of the current population has zero clue on how good we have it these days. I wanted so badly to become a railroad conductor to learn to become a locomotive engineer after high school . Unfortunately I had a underlying health issue that kept me from qualifying for it. My great grandfather was an engineer and my grandfather used to take me for walks down the old railway behind their home (before it was also removed) and tell me all kinds of stories. The men and women that built this country truly were amazing.
Thank you for sharing such great and detailed information!
Thanks for a great video. I was recently at Promontory - certainly enjoyed exploring the area around it - but didn’t have time to head west along the old right of way. Thanks for filling in the blanks. Also, good job of researching the route.
Thanks for the compliment
You can see the lake surrounding the rock. Also, I believe it was called Deseret salt Co. Owned by the mormon church.
Thanks! This was FASCINATING! You really know the history of that area. Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks for watching!
That's a great drive. Lucin is all gone, only a few grave markers left. Nice video. Do a video on gold hill next.
Thanks for your efforts!
When I visited Promontory I went to the Big Fill, but didn't go further west over the lake and onto Nevada. Thanks for filling in that piece, interesting video. Maybe I'll drive it next time I'm out that way
Brother thank you for taking me on your adventure through time and space I just recently went out to promontory to see the railroad i was totally fascinated Unfortunately I had to bring my family with me and I couldn't take in the sights in which I wanted to see but I did appreciate what little I was able to see Thanks again for taking me on your adventure and hello from Detroit Michigan 94/275
Glad you were able to visit Promontory and get a sense of what it was like to work on the railroad in the 1860s. Actually visiting a place is definitely much better than seeing it on TH-cam.
Amazing video! Very informative. Great work... subscribed.
This was beyond awesome! Thanks.
Great video! Enjoyed watching it.
Fantastic research on your part. Probably the best video that exists of historic railroads in Utah. Have you ever thought of coming to Ontario Canada and doing an historic railroads video here. I've got three abandoned American lines running through my property, the railroads were everywhere at one time.
Very well done. Subscribed.
Well done. Thank you for the very interesting video.
Great video! So much great info, this person did their homework. Thank you!
'Loved this video' says a former New Yorker. Learning about the *wild west* and seeing artifacts from the R.R. and abandon towns kept my imagination alive. Any other females out there in TH-cam land that love train history ???
Thank you! I hope you get the chance to drive along the old railroad grade yourself one day!
Thanks for doing the work and for sharing this.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very good video. Thanks
Very very well done sir.
I'm surprised how little is left of the small town's in the desert. I assume people later scrounged everything of value later on?
You’re exactly right. Buildings were often moved when people moved during this time, and what was left was often recycled by local ranchers for their use.
Wonderful video! So interesting. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you sir. Excellent documentary.
Great video.
Nicely done
Thank you.
I am a new subscriber and I can't wait to see the rest of your videos
Great video! I love the way you give us the history throughout the video. Please keep the videos coming. Stay safe and God bless you.
Thanks you!
Awesome video thanks for making and sharing this. I was blown away from seeing that the tracks were gone. I understand that the war effect took its toll on the tracks. We had to do what we had to do back then. It would be pretty sweet to see the tracks come back but it probably will not happen. Sweet video though. No doubt.
It would be neat to see a train out there again, but it is also thrilling in its own way to ride the same grade that the trains once did and get a chance to see what only the engineers could see as well as the passengers as they looked out the windows. Thanks for watching the video!
Nice channel, mate!
Herzlichen dank!
Thank you very much for your video I found this trip you went on to be quite interesting I've thought about making that journey myself but never had the time now I don't have to good job my man good job
Thanks! I hope you do make a trip out there as the camera can’t quite capture the natural beauty of that area and the scope of what those men accomplished.
Very interesting. I’ve always wanted to explore that area.
It's definitely worth at least a day trip. Just take a higher clearance vehicle, water and enough fuel to get to Montello, Wendover or Snowville to refuel. I've heard of people having problems with flat tires from old railroad spikes, but I've never had any problems personally.
Enjoyed the video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
This was a great vid. I hope to drive the old rail grade myself one day soon....
Truly, thank you on the full history of the railroad. We’re reading Little House on the Prairie and Charles and the family are moving out west and the father Charles is helping building the railroad in South Dakota and going west desolate country hearty people. Don’t know if we could do that again thank you.🇺🇸👍🇺🇸
I remember looking on google earth and randomly stumbling across the wye and the roundhouse. Great video!
Thank you!
Well done.
Thank you
That cattleguard made out of rail. Isn’t from 1869. The rail is too large. Unless they replaced the rail later in life, to the larger size. If you go back look for dates on the rail. It’s there somewhere.
Very interesting video - want to visit there one day
It's definitely worth it. I don't know much about light aircraft, but if you had one out here, a great flight would be from Wendover Nevada to Logan Utah.
Utah history is awesome
I can never make it there, but this was the next best thing.
Its hard to believe anybody stayed for long, seems pretty desolate- anyways thanks, interesting vid
Absolutely fantastic video, especially for those of us who are huge railroad fans/followers. I have to ask, however, will you be doing a video covering the Nevada portion of the CP????
Thanks for the nice comment! I do want to continue the story into Nevada, but that won't happen until after I finish school later this year.
@@ZGHistory For a history video of the quality you've done....I can wait!!!!!
Think you for the history lesson i though it was festinating is they any books to look this up.?????
Sure, "Like Nothing Like it in the World" by Stephen Ambrose, "The Chinese and the Iron Road" by Gordon H. Chang, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, "Rival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad" by Walter Borneman
I noticed the lack of ballast on the line. when did they start using ballast to keep the tracks tight and keep water away?
Great question. Based on photographs in taken in 1869-70, they appear to have made some rough gravel where they could and covered the ties with it. Between larger settlements, the RR did house Chinese workers whose job it was to make make regular inspections and repairs to their assigned section of track.
0:37 that’s where a trestle used to be! There’s a photo of a construction train on that said trestle!
Edit: Ohh you mentioned the trestle in the video. Sorry about that! Shoulda watched before commenting!
I apologize for the wind
Nice video! Thanks for this. The tracks you hiked, do you know the coordinates? I would like to hike the same route? Do you know if rhey allow motorcycles on the tracks?
You can take motorcycles along the grade, you can pick it up west of the Golden Spike National Historical Park, at the ghost town of Kelton, or around the ghost town of Lucin. It's easy to spot and is a national historic byway.
@@ZGHistory thanks for the response. I was interested in the transcontinental train for a project. I was wondering if I could PM you for a possible interview about the topic?
@@uplb1986 Certainly!
@@ZGHistoryhow can I contact you? What is you information?
@@uplb1986 My email address is found on my channel page. Yesterdaysutah@gmail.com
Great video!! I have a ton of questions since I've never seen a documentary on the Transcontinental railroad.
1. Were the trails you were driving on the original rail bed?
2. When did all of the towns and railroad disappear out there?
Thank you. And those are good questions.
1. Yes, the majority of the time I was driving on the same grade the trains ran on.
2. The towns began dying out after the railroad completed a line that ran across the Great Salt Lake called the Lucin cutoff in 1904. Between 1904 and WWII, the line was a backup line. During WWII, they pulled up the rails to be used in the war effort.
Okay, that makes sense... I've subscribed to your channel so I look forward to your upcoming content!
Those rails should have dates on them
It's more a bridge abutments
It’s oddly sad to me that there are no commemorations for the active civilization that were the various towns and their inhabitants out there along the east-west route in Utah…..Very Sad….Thank you so much for your scholarship.
Thanks for the kind comment! Happily Utah State History is working with state archeologists to better understand the people who lived in those towns.
I have the original Union Pacific golden Railroad spike from 1869 and the spike is small and and 5 1/2 inches long
It sounds like you've got a great replica. There were two golden spikes at the ceremony, one is held by Stanford University and the other one has been lost to time.
How about giving it to a museum???
Ok? So, is a "smattering" in the midwest-to west, the same as a "smidgen" is to the south, to south-east? Not going by the count of brick I saw, when you said "smattering", the count was much more than a "smidgen."
I really enjoyed this video, especially the roundhouse! That was a rather large roundhouse! How far was the "Y" from that roundhouse?
Good question. I reckon you could say a smattering is similar to a smidgeon in terms of amounts. We in the west also use smidgeon but in my experience, it's almost exclusively used to describe an amount used in baking and then we often will shorten the word to "smidge." I personally use "skosh" but I adopted that from Wisconsiners. The "y" is a good couple dozen miles from the roundhouse at least. In railroad lingo the "y" is spelled wye. Thanks for the great comment!
@@ZGHistory I just use "Y" because I am a redneck! ( gotta be different) Skosh, smattering, Smidgen, or smidge. Just don't use a shmeckle bad use of a body part! I did enjoy the video. Take care.
You did a great job. Thanks for not taking anything
Thank you!
I spent the weekend out there 9/17/22 and I can tell you that there is no silence like that anywhere else.
@@suicidesqueeze It's true. It's almost a cleansing experience to get away from the madness of modernity.
@@suicidesqueeze I'm also glad you experienced it for yourself!
I grew up out in Box Elder, me and my buddies been seeing stuff out there for 30 years
Was all the track pulled up? Or does of it still exist exactly as it was laid down at the time?
Good question. I don't know of any section of track that has the original hardware (rails, spikes, etc.) from 1869. In the decades following the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the engines and rolling stock became heavier and the rails themselves were upgraded to stronger, better rails to handle the weight of the more modern trains. There are artefacts along the original grade that date to 1869 such as spikes.
@@ZGHistory Thanks for getting back to me. I have just finished watching hell on wheels. Then i started doing some googling around. And have started to learn more about that period in american history. I am not sure how accurate the tv show is, but it sparked my interest to learn more.
half way point Utah tells you how big the west in capairson in land mas
It is big for sure. It felt great to ride along this old railroad grade and just enjoy the open terrain and that great big sky.
My Great Grandfather Worked On The Union Pacific RR Near Laramie City Wyoming In 1867 And 1868 He Was A Native Of Brown Co Illinois Who Traveled Too Fort Walla Walla Washington On His Fathers Wagon Train In 1867 George Traveled Back Too Wyoming For Work OnThe UPRR At 3.OO Per Day Later He Returned Home In Brown Co Illinois His Name Was George Washington McDannald 1841-1908
January 11th 2023
Thanks for sharing!
Why did the Union Pacific move the tracks ?
Good question. The tracks were pulled up in the 1940s so the metal could be used for war material manufacturing during World War II.
The construction of the transcontinental route was done in a hurry by 2 different railroad companies. The Union Pacific (UP) built west from Omaha while the Central Pacific (CP) built east from Sacramento. There was no pre-arranged meeting point, so they were competing with each other to lay the most rail in order to maximize the amount of land and money they got from the US government. At the end the companies were preparing to build past each other, and the government had to step in and choose the point where the rails would meet.
Promontory Summit was just about in the middle of nowhere and an inconvenient location for two railroads to join. Ogden was the nearest city and a logical place for a Union Station, which opened in 1870. CP either purchased or leased the UP route into Ogden. CP was unsatisfied with the steeper grades and tighter curves on the UP route and had already surveyed a better route down the east side of the summit. They built using that survey and bypassed about 10 miles of UP construction. Promontory remained as a station stop.
CP ran into financial difficulties and was leased to the Southern Pacific (SP) beginning in 1885. SP took over all operations and CP essentially was absorbed into SP though legally they remained separate companies. In 1902 SP began construction of the Lucin Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake between Lucin and Ogden. The original route through Promontory was abandoned in September of 1904.
Union Pacific merged with SP in 1996, and now all of that old CP/SP property is part of the UP.
I have the real golden spike from the transcontinental railroad it’s made of California gold and nickel mixed on both sides it’s says navada and Wyoming
I love uuu
The I formation about trestle you showed at 29:30 is incorrect. The square bents predate the round ones. Great video otherwise.
What about railroad spikes off the transcontinental railroad
Travelers can still find spikes here and there along the old grade though people are discouraged from taking them.
@@ZGHistory I find my railroad spikes along the Union Pacific Railroad tracks they have Mc $
No...they didn't give the Chinese workers credit and stories that filtered down claimed they wasn't treated right
Just saying you mean a turntable but you do not need a roundhouse to have one.....
Thank you for the clarification. There was both a turntable and a roundhouse onsite. The divots around the turntable divot are traces of the individual roundhouse bays.
It’s too bad they tore up an important peace of history
I kind of agree, but by tearing it up, they made the road accessible to car travel. I really loved traveling along the old railroad grade and seeing the same thing the engineers and the passengers saw on the same road. If they still had the rails, it wouldn't be quite the same experience.
You asked about the two
This railroad was not the first transcontinental railroad. The first one was the Panama Railroad built across the Isthmus of Panama and was in service 11 years earlier then 1869. It was financed by some of the same men as financed this railroad. Ships would go down the Atlantic coast line and discharge men and freight at the east terminus for loading then trains would travel to Pacific and men and freight got back aboard ships bound north to California and visa versa. This greatly speeded up time to get to California good fields then the overland routes of the time.
A fair point for an important railroad. Though because Panama is an isthmus and not a continent, I'm not sure the railroad can accurately be called a transcontinental railroad.
@@ZGHistory Excellent point....from an "Original Transcon RR" fan...😇
well you need a little help 1. the town name is pernounced Lu-cin 2. there was no frendship between the chineese of the CP andthe Irish of the UP when blasting they would forget to till the other compane with deadly results
Thanks for the comment. I'd be interested to read into your sources that say the Chinese and Irish didn't get along. While there was general racial prejudice, they were people like us which allows for personal friendships and respect to cross racial lines. Please mention your sources and I'd be happy to look at them.
@@ZGHistory I grew up in a town 35 miles from the golden Spike My Grandpa had a ranch just South of the Spike sight he was deputy for a while in Terraceback in the 1890's I spent a lot time in promatory from about 1958 to 1968 back before it was illegal to hunt artifax and my Father was born in promatory in 1910 I know the history well of the RailRoad just so you know I producrd a video call tour of the golden spike national historic sight back around 1988 hope that helps
The "China Men" that unburied the existing railroad are chained together at the bottom of Lake Tahoe....... ask Cousteau. They did not build it they un buried it.