Many view the building of the Transcontinental Railroad as a tremendous feat in not just United States History, but a global feat because it can be seen as a true catalyst for spurring the use of transcontinental trains. However, many do not know the unsavory tactics that went into play of building this railroad. In this article for Speaking with Animals, I will provide the reader with a story that will reveal to them about the unsavory actions done by men like Thomas Durant in order to create Transcontinental Railroad. The primary action that will be discussed is the close extinction of the American buffalo and the consequences it had on society. At the conclusion of this article, readers will have enough knowledge of the subject to be able to make their own judgment on the morality of building the Transcontinental Railroad.
Many know Thomas Clark Durant for his role as vice president for railroads on the Union Pacific Railroad, but Durant has an extensive background that led him to this job position. Durant entered the railroad industry while working in prairie wheat trade. Durant realized the need for a more efficient way of transporting wheat regionally. This led Durant to join the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad as a broker. It was here that Durant met fellow co-worker Henry Farnam. In 1853, they would open “Farnam and Durant” the name for their contracting company. Their biggest job was working with Mississippi and Missouri Railroad on constructing a bridge that would span the Mississippi River. They were successful in building the first ever bridge to span the Mississippi River, but faced legal backlash when a steamboat hit the bridge and subsequently sued Farnam and Durant. They hired a private attorney by the name of Abraham Lincoln to fight the lawsuit. This would prove to be favorable to Durant when Lincoln would become President of the United States.
In 1853, Congress approved the Pacific Railroad Surveys. The next two years were spent exploring possible routes across the American West. Upon completion of surveying the west, it was determined that there were three possible routes: a northern, central, and southern route. The central route was chosen because it was viewed as the route with the best terrain to instal the tracks on. However, using the central route meant that they would have to deal with the Plains Indians as well as a with millions of buffalo.
After deciding on a route that would run through the central part of the United States, Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. This act gave construction loans and land grants to the Central Pacific Railroad Company and the Union Pacific Railroad Company, Durant’s company that he created on his own when he left Farnman. (Central Pacific was tasked with laying track from the west coast and the Union Pacific was tasked with laying track from the the midwest, and the two meeting in Utah.) The reason for this act was that Congress believed that it was not going to be profitable because the railroad was being built ahead of any demand for a transcontinental railroad. However, greedy businessmen like Durant would prove that the building of the Transcontinental Railroad would be quite profitable.
Both companies sold bonds and stock to spur investment into the building of the railroad. Legislation determined that you could not own more than 10 percent of the companies stock. However, Durant paid investors up front to purchase stock for him in their names. This illegal act gave Durant control of approximately 50 percent of the company. Durant manipulated the railroad stock industry by investing opposite to the rumors that he would spread about which railroads he intended to use for the Union Pacific’s portion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Additionally, the United States government made the mistake of not following the two companies progress’ closely enough. Both Central Pacific and Union Pacific took advantage of the government’s inability to closely monitor their progress and were able to make significant profits by forming independent companies to work on the railroad. For Durant, and Union Pacific, this company was Credit Mobilier. Durant and his team realized that more profits would come from constructing the railroad rather than running a completed railroad. As a result, Durant created Credit Mobilier, and they would abuse the system in place and by obtaining more construction contracts. Through deceitful acts like these, people like Durant and others were able to reap enormous profits.
Durant and Union Pacific were able to begin construction on their portion of the railroad in July of 1865. However, the building process was slow due to the ongoing Civil War. The Civil War made it difficult for Union Pacific to find labor and the needed materials to begin laying track for the railroad. Due to these obstacles, by December of 1865 they had only laid 40 miles of track. However, at the start of 1866 the Union Pacific were able to begin an efficient process of expanding westward. Durant brought in a new staff of engineers to help with the plans for building their part of the railroad. Despite this, the Durant and his company still faced issues in their everyday efforts to completing the railroad.
These difficulties were: terrain, weather, buffalo, and Native Americans. The biggest issue regarding the terrain was finding ways to build around bodies of water and through mountains.. Given the time period, building bridges took time and as a result often delayed the building process. When a bridge was needed, it would be pre-built somewhere and then shipped to the site and assembled there. The engineers’ for Union Pacific designed a structure called a trestle, which was a horizontal beam supported by a number of slanted beams running from the ground up to the horizontal beam.
For Durant and the Union Pacific Railroad company, they did face another terrain issue. This issue was building around mountains. This issue was prevalent for them, but not as bad as for the Central Pacific Railroad company who spent a great deal of time dealing with mountainous terrain. Both companies turned to using a compound called nitroglycerin. According to the Britannica Encyclopaedia, the compound was created by Ascanio Sobrero in 1846. The compound was highly volatile and there were numerous instances throughout the 1800’s were it would explode by accident. These instances led to the temporary ban of the substance. Both train companies worked around the ban by developing the compound on site. Ultimately, this was the final obstacle for Durant and his workers before they were able to complete their portion of the track and meet Central Pacific Railroad at Promontory Summit in Utah on May 10th, 1869. While this signified the completion of the track, it is important not to overlook the other obstacles that Durant and Union Pacific Railroad faced.
Before having to blast through mountains, the Union Pacific’s construction of the had to deal with the tough winters that came with working in the plains region. The frigid winters caused creeks and rivers to freeze, which posed a problem for bringing any needed equipment to the construction sight to continue work on constructing the track. The main way for transporting the materials was by ferry, and this could no longer be done because of the frozen bodies of water. The alternative was to use sleighs, which was a much slower method of transporting the needed materials to the construction site.
The next issue was the buffalo. They posed a threat to Durant and the Union Pacific and their railroad because the large animals could easily destroy the track that was being laid.Weighing in at around 1,400 pounds and being over 9 feet tall, these beasts could do damage to the railroad by simply walking across the tracks. In addition to their large size, they also had a large population in the plains region. It was estimated that in the mid-19th century 30 to 60 million buffalo inhabited the plains. The buffalo also posed the threat of delaying trains. Buffalo traveled in herds and as a result could bring a train to a complete stop because there is no way around a herd of buffalo. Durant and his staff determined the solution to the buffalo issue was to encourage people to hunt them when riding the train.
Buffalo hunting became a major activity for a variety of reasons: helped to make building the railroad more efficient, the hides were highly valuable, commercial hunting, and it dealt a blow to the Native Americans, who were the final obstacle in this list of what disrupted the building for Durant and the Union Pacific Railroad. Railroad construction became more efficient as the buffalo population declined because the aforementioned reasons earlier in the paragraph were no longer an issue.
The hides of the buffalo were popular because they were seen as very fashionable at this time. They were used for robes and coats. Buffalo hides were not just valued in the United States, demand for them was seen in the United Kingdom, France, and even in Germany. This creation of an international market only led to an increase in people hunting the buffalo.
Commercial hunting had arguably the worst effect on the buffalo. Durant and other members of the Pacific Union Railroad saw the demand for hunting buffalo, and they began to offer hunting trips on their trains. They were known as hunting by rail. The railroad would provide .50 caliber rifles for the participants, and the train would go alongside a herd of buffalo where the participants fired from point blank. These trips led to the deaths of mass numbers of buffalo. Gilbert King, a writer for the Smithsonian, revealed Orlando Brown single handedly killed approximately 6,000 buffalo. As this continued, the Texas legislature saw the extreme decline in the buffalo population, and drafted a bill to protect the animal. However, General Sheridan was vehemently against this because he saw the damage that this was doing to the Native Americans. General Sheridan had been tasked with forcing Native Americans out of the plains region and onto reservations. Sheridan attacked villages across the plains region and was willing to do whatever it took to get the Native Americans onto reservations. General Sherman went as far as killing women and children during attacks on Native American encampments. One of Sheridan’s other tactics of forcing the Native Americans to submit to moving onto reservations was to hurt a commodity that was a staple to their life, the buffalo. The buffalo was used by the Native Americans for food, shelter, clothing, and even as a religious item. Sheridan knew this, and he thought that by decreasing the buffalo population to the point where Native Americans could not live off of it would force them to submit and move onto reservations. Sheridan’s plan was successful in that after years of serious hunting of the buffalo, they had almost pushed the buffalo to extinction. Historians estimate that there were only 300 buffalo left by the end of the 1800’s. This left the Native Americans dependent on cattle as their source for food, clothing, and shelter, but this was an expensive alternative that did not work as well as buffalo. As a result, the Native Americans had no choice but to submit to the wishes of the United States government and move onto reservations.
While the ethics of essentially eliminating the buffalo population in the plains is definitely in question, there is no doubt that Durant and his Union Pacific company were happy for their decline. The buffalo decline accomplished two things: it eliminated the threat of buffalo destroying the track and lowered the Native American population, which decreased the risk of attacks on Durant’s workers and the railroad. As stated above, the Union Pacific completed their portion of the railroad in May of 1869, but it would have taken much longer had they not been able to lower the buffalo population.
While this was clearly advantageous for Durant and the Union Pacific Railroad, it left the state of the buffalo in serious question. On the verge of extinction, the United States had no choice but to intervene and try to bring the buffalo population back to a healthy level. According to an article by Taylor, animal activists formed the Bison Society where they began working with government officials, like President Roosevelt, to find a solution to the buffalo crisis. The solution was simple, creating multiple sanctuaries throughout the midwest and west where buffalo could live without fear of being hunted. These sanctuaries were established in the early 1900’s and still exist to this day. The buffalo has steadily increased their population from their meger 300 in the late 1800’s to a modest 500,000 today. While it is nowhere near what it once used to be, they are no longer in danger of going extinct.
The underlying question here is was the development of the railroad done in an ethical way? I believe that the evidence above clearly indicates that no because it almost sent the buffalo population into extinction. However, I believe that it was the most efficient way of completing the railroad. Having millions buffalo roaming the plains was an issue not just to the railroad, but to the modernization of America as a whole. If the population decline had not happened then, it would have happened eventually because the buffalo were simply occupying too much land that would be needed for the development of towns as westward expansion occurred.
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