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Show More To Building Railroad Than Gold Spike -- im . Hardly had the smoke stopped curling from the artillery of the Civil War, when the roar of another great battle on the plains and the mountains of the vast American West echoed across the nation. The piercing din of a savage fight rose into the solitude of desert air at the battle lines ot two great American railroad companies. Closing the gap between the east and blossoming California, the Union Pacific advanced from the MisPacific souri and the Central from Sacramento, toward a Junction near Ogden, Utah, to weld BOX ELDER NEWS V ; ' J1, .,. v 9 - X; and eaph other like bull the nation together with bands streams and the sheer moun- would then discuss buffalo, extains of the Sierra Nevadas end ploits; the new track their recof steel. laying comcost the Rockies the that ord or the latest skirmish with The railroad companies batheavily in lives as well Indians. tled each other like two mara- panies The Union Pacific lunged thon racers sprinting a long as money. race, neck to neck. The compePricking national Interest Into across the plains and through tition between the two compan- heat, great metropolitan news- the Rockies with the savages, ies smothered the lowiest Chi- papers throughout the East fired by the Invasion of their nese track layer to General shouted in the broadest head- hunting grounds toy the thunGreenville Dodge himself in an lines every used: One mile of dering engines that split flames air of urgency, whipping the track laid yesterday on the Un- from their Jewels and belched railroads on to complete the ion Pacific Railroad; smoke Into "Two and bellows of black transcontinental railroad a full miles of track their crystal sky, lurking withfive years before their goal. laid toy the Central - Pacific. in musket range almost every one railroad would set a mile of the way, . When But It was the skirmishes Engineers and firemen carried with Indians at End O' Track" record, the other would soon top rifles in their cabs and work that let the blood of the swear- it. trains and freights bristled with toe of on nation Irishmen the The strained tip ing, sweating like a frigate of war. Union Pacific; and it was the to watch the two companies firepower The bloodiest stretch of the wide the crashing charge across the plains towards track gorges, was through Nebraska, and it was here, In the Plum Creek vicinity, that Chief Turkey Leg, leading a war party of Cheyennes, scored their first major victory against the iron three-quarter- ... Modem equipment . . . years of experience a sincere desire IW'sMMIs.', to keep your cars, trucks and machinery operating those ... are our qualifications. Electric And Acetylene WELDING COOK'S ' MACHINE SHOP Phone . em JO O1 It s General Repairing GARAGE 54 North Main Street Railroad Easiest Port Of Building The Transcontinental Peach Say's Edition Brigham City. Utah Wednesday, Sopt $, 1951 - Scalps, Pigtails Trimmed Off By Bob Crompton , n 178-- W horse. The Cheyenne and Sioux had peppered the trains with musket shots and arrows, with little affect. They had stretched a hide rope from pony to pony, across the tracks in front of the engines, with disastrous results to the braves and no effect on the puffing engine. Chief Turkey Leg, though, reasoned that the iron wagons must carry valuable cargoes, and with curiosity of a young mountain cat, he and his braves tied a log across the tracks, with a length of wire cut from the accompanying telegraph line. , William Thompson, head linesman, and five of his crew, soon came tumbling down the track on a hand car, seeking the break In the telegraph line. They plowed into the log. Jumped the track and the crew was flipped helter skelter. The Cheyennes' pounced on them as they leaped to their feet and tried to escape. Thompson felt the rip of a slug In his right arm from an Indian rifle, looked back just as a mounted Indian crashed the butt of a gun to his skull. He felt and lay feigning death when the brave jumped from his pony and scalped him. iHappy as a child with his new found secret of destruction, Turkey Leg ordered two tracks bent up and out of joint, He an4- his war party squatted among- the sage brush and waited for their r- 1 r7r. 0 ) JS ill I. fl trans-continent- next victim. Soon west bound freight approached, rammed the barricade and left the track. The engineer and the fireman roasted as the fire box spewed flames over the engine, but the other lo al driving energy demanded action after the battles pf the war between the states was only a menjory. With the Civil War just ended the military were looking for new fields and the personnel of the Union Pacific was liberally sprinkled with generals, colonels and majors. Field officers under General Dodge were the Casement brothers, Jack and Dan, who held the contract for grading and laying the rails for a thousand miles. It was they who roamed the grade and track, pushing their men on, demanding more and more road be- - built each day. They were the ramrod behind the gigantic effort For the Irish on the Union Pacific all the battles at "End O Track were not with the Indians. Following at the heels of the steaming crews, were the carpet bag leeches with a long bar, polished mirror, deck of cards, handful of dice and all other gambling parphanelia that could be carried on a wagon. Whenever the railroad stopped for a breather to build up supplies and construct an advance camp, a dent city would blossom. Its leading citizens were the smoothly garbed gamblers and the thickly painted "ladies. With his last pay check,' a typical rail carrier or spike driv wharf crew members escaped back down the track to Plum Creek to spread the word. Thompson, the lineman, witnessed the bloody episode and at dawn, when the Indians left the wreck with loot, walked to the next station without his scalp. Thq ring" was set up for the fight when congress passed and Lincoln signed the enabling act in 1862. The act authorized the of a "continuous construction line of railroad, ready for use, from the Missouri river to the navigable waters of the the Sacramento river In California.' The enabling act allowed the two roAUflJM&.iS yearn In which to build the 1600 miles of track and as an added Inducement granted the companies subsidies, 10 sections of land to every mile of track completed successfully and this - was. later increased to 20 sections along the 400 foot right of way. The roads were bond-aideat the rate of 516,000 per mile, the amount doubled and trebled through the rugged mountainous part of the route. Commanding the Union Pacifics army of 10,000 Irishmen was General Greenville Dodge, brilliant Civil War tactician, (Continued oq Following Pago) d r driven. But this was the easiest part of the dnvs railroads across the plains and mountains of the A railroader was scalped alive; many Chinamen pigtails to the scissors of the fun loving Irish, world record of 10 miles of track was laid in one win a wager for the Central Pacific. (See story) Pictured above is the scene of May 10, 1869, when East met West in Box Elder county as rails by the Union Pacific, building westward, and the Central (now Southern) Pacific, building from the West, met at Promontory and amid jubilation and with considerable ceremony the Golden Spike completing the railroad was It's Fun tori John Weir I1 LEARN TO FLY . . . its them way to get ther quickly. 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