Show an american amerian railroad maintains a unique museum which links the present with the historic fistori Hi stori past of the regions it serves by alaio SCOTT WATSON Be released leased by western newspaper paper union TS only a yellowing piece of ITS 1 paper upon which is scrawled a single sentence yet theres a lot of american history p past ast and present bound up in t that hat brief message visit the union pacific museum in omaha neb and there you can read for yourself our this historic telegram you can make affidavit of completion of road to promontory summit the date was may the writer was grenville M dodge who had been a general in the union army during the civil war and who was now chief engineer of the union pacific railroad and when he penned that laconic message to president oliver ames of the U P he was writing a new chapter in the history of transportation also a new chapter in the annals of america for the first time these united states from the atlantic to the pacific were bound together by twin bands of steel never to be broken no longer would the westward far ing pioneer have to plod along afoot or on horseback or ride in stua swaying ying jolting stagecoach or prairie schooner in order to reach the new lands of opportunity which beckoned him in the west the overland journey which had once been a matter of months even years would now be reduced to weeks then days that is the past in this scrap of paper As for the present well at the very moment you are reading dodges telegram tel earam there is flowing over this first transcontinental railroad as well as the others which have been built in the last three quarters of a century an endless stream of men and munitions bound for the far flung battle lines of the greatest war in human history soldiers sailors and marines machine guns and jeeps and tanks shells and gasoline and food powerful locomotives are speeding them west toward their final destination tokyo and these huge iron horses meet and roar past others headed east pulling behind them the men and munitions which will break down the walls of hillers Hit lers european fortress but dodges telegram is not the only document in the collections of this museum which links the past and the present in graphic manner we hear a lot of talk today about the manpower shortage ba back ck in in 1869 it was also a problem as witness a letter preserve preserved ed in the U P museum written by bri brigham young president of the church of at the latter day saints mormons cormons Mor mons in which he tells of his struggle to secure enough labor to build a connecting link of railroad from salt lake city to the U P main line or talk to mrs ruth huth hamilton the kindly gray haired lady who is the curator of the museum and she will tell you how the past frequently walks through its doors in the th e person of some one on e of the thousands of persons who visit the place annually there was the day when a little group of dark skinned boys came shyly into the big room and surveyed in silence the indian re relics lies in one of the cases suddenly there was an exclamation of delight it seems that one of the boys had recognized an old time photograph of one of his forebears tore bears crow dog a great war chief of the sioux then there was the day when two big westerners showed unusual interest in one grim relic in the museum the shackles used on big nose george a famous outlaw when pe ie was brought back from montana for an attempted holdup of a union pacific train the label on this relic says that the sheriff who captured big nose george was one joseph rankin that was your grandfather you know said the elder man to the younger and he might have added that joe rankin was not only a famous western sheriff in the early days of montana but he was also a renowned scout for the army and the hero of a remarkable long distance ride during the ute indian war of 1879 in fact the collections in the union pacific museum conati constitute tute a veritable graphic history of the old west the era of the fur trade is symbolized in two relics of one of its greatest figures the watch and scissors used by old jim bridger here is a mute symbol of the days when the buffalo roamed the west 77 7 7 1 i 4 4 1 its d 4 A 3 n vilf I 1 ta A the IWed wedding dino of the rails at promontory point utah may 10 1869 marking the completion completion of the first transcontinental railroad the central pacific engine is on the left the lie union pacific on the right from an original photograph by C R savage in the union pacific museum ern plains by the millions a bleached whitened skull of one of the great shaggy beasts and of course there is many a memento of the man who won his fame as a slayer of bison Buff buffalo aIo bill cody and the notables both american and european whom he guided on their hunting part parties ies among amona them were james gordon bennett famous publisher of the new york herald the grand duke alexis of russia and the english nobleman the earl of dunraven Dun raven over there is a memory of the epic migration of pioneers over the old oregon trail a huge ox yoke which once encircled the necks of the patient animals that dragged the covered wagons up through the platte river valley across the barren plains of southern wyoming and through south pass toward their goal beyond the the very route over which speed the stream liners of today here too are mementos of the day of the cattleman and the cowboy one of them a rare old book showing the trails from texas to ellsworth kan one of the roaring cow towns on the kansas pacific in the seventies then theres a collection of branding irons which once burned the insignia of famous cow outfits on the hides of texas longhorns and mrs hamilton will tell you that these branding irons were of special interest to one party of visitors a short time ago they JF 4 4 z 1 4 i 1 4 as a Y A v 4 1 AL Z X 4 4 ir 4 ak 0 rare photograph of col W IF cody buffalo bill autographed by iliin him to chief red shirt of the sioux who was oue one of the andian notables in his wild west show this Is one of the few pictures ever taken of cody wearing the uniform of the nebraska national guard in which he was an officer and is here reproduced tor for the first time original in the union pacific museum came from argentina where similar irons are used today to mark the cattle that roam the pampas of that country by the hundreds of thousands and the designs at their branding irons are not unlike the spanish designs which were used by the vaqueros ros in the early days of california californi ia of ca course urse most of the exhibits in the museum relate directly to the history of the union pacific railroad itself but since U P history is so inextricably interwoven with the history of the trans missouri frontier it is almost impossible to say where one leaves off and the other begins nor are all the relics there mementos of westerners the east is well represented too for it wa was eastern capital that built the union pacific and the history of the U P is studded with the names of prominent easterners asa whitney oliver ames george francis train thomas C durant and massachi born grenville M dodge who surveyed the route for the first transcontinental railroad and then was chief engineer for its building it may surprise you to see how many relics of abraham lincoln there are here too but it is not inappropriate that they should be for it was the great emancipator who on july 1 1862 signed the pacific railway bill passed by congress which provided for a land grant and subsidy from the government to aid in the construction of a railroad westward from the missouri river to california and for another road eastward across california to connect with it it was president lincoln who designated council bluffs iowa as the eastern terminus of the U P and among the most treasured documents in the museums collections is an original lincoln letter an executive order dated october 1863 appointing springer harbaugh of pennsylvania as a government director of the projected railroad fortunately for posterity photography had become a well established art by the time the union paci pacific began building west and to that region flocked many of the daring early dy day camera men who had won their spurs as photographers on the battlefields of the civil war among them were such men as alexander gardner capt A J russell who became official photographer for the U P william H jackson savage and ottinger and others so an important part of the collections in the U P museum are the photographs made by these men which comprise a priceless pictorial record of one of the most thrilling epochs in american history it was savage who made some of the best pictures at the historic ceremony at promontory point utah on may 10 1869 when there took place the wedding of the rails the driving of the golden and silver spikes which symbolized the joining of the central pacific and the union pacific lines and the completion of the first transcontinental railroad and incidentally one of the most interesting te of the documentary exhibits in the museum is the photostat of the diary of this same C R savage from may 4 when he set out from his studio in salt lake city through may 11 after his work at promontory antory point was done too many museums are places of static exhibits where the whole atmosphere mo sphere is that of the dead and moldering past to visit this unique museum in omaha unique in that no other railroad so far as is known has set aside space in its headquarters to preserve materials connected with its own history and the history of the country it serves is to have a feeling of seeing history on the march with the past mending blending into the present in the continuing story of a nation still being built it may be due to the vision of carl R gray former president of the union pacific who established the museum and sponsored its early development then again it may be due to the galvanic influence of his successor who takes a keen pers personal onal interest in the place and is responsible for the addition of many an interesting item to its collections his name in case you dont happen to remember that dynamic personality who went to the national capital a y year ear or so ago and showed washington officialdom how to do a bi big 9 job quickly and efficiently effi Y is 6 big bie bill jeff jeffers er |