Here there are small, but well put-together displays on the history of the railroad and the "Hells on Wheels" towns that sprung up alongside the track as it was laid, as well as several movies you can watch.
Reenactments of the driving of the Golden Spike take place on Saturdays and holidays between May 1 through Columbus Day weekend check the park for times and to confirm the schedule involving two locomotives that are exact replicas of the original.
If visiting during the off-season, definitely take a tour of the engine house to see the locomotives and hear about their interesting history. There are a couple of options for extending your stay. Get out and stretch your legs on the 1. Or drive along the railroad grades on one of the auto tours, including the 14 mile West Auto Tour closed in winter or the 2 mile East Auto Tour both not approved for RVs or vehicles towing trailers.
All these excursions provide ample opportunity to view cuts and fills and contemplate the work that it took to create the railroad. The East Auto Tour also has an interesting natural arch created by the wave action of Lake Bonneville.
Register Login. Search Close. The area's name was later changed to Roseville because, according to a popular story, there was an abundance of wild roses growing nearby. The first time a newspaper mentioned "Roseville" was during the presidential race between Abraham Lincoln and Gen. George McClellan. Roseville's first building was an unpainted shed used as a depot and freight shipping station by Cyrus W. The railroad always has been one of the area's most important economic development engines, spurring trade, supporting the growth of the agriculture industry and ancillary businesses, increasing residential development and serving as a major employer with a peak of about 6, employees in the s and s.
It marked the return of Roseville as a major West Coast rail center, and perhaps the most important railroad center west of the Mississippi River. The entrance to downtown Roseville today is marked by Southern Pacific steam locomotive No.
The transcontinental route reached what would become the town of Rocklin on June 6, A roundhouse was built there to service the larger engines needed to power trains over the Sierra Range. Rocklin became an important point in the building of the railroad. The area was rich in granite, a material the railroad needed for construction. Rocklin, in turn, needed the railroad to transport granite produced in its quarries.
In fact, Central Pacific's first paying freight was Rocklin granite. In , Capitol Quarry, destined to become Rocklin's largest, was established to furnish granite for construction of the California state capitol in nearby Sacramento. Thereafter, Rocklin granite was used for public buildings throughout the West. An extensive rail network, consisting of miles of spur track, was developed to serve the largest of the city's 61 granite mining sites. In its prime, Rocklin was known as the Granite Capital of the West, and the extensive quarries most likely contributed to the naming of the town.
Central Pacific Railroad began operating freight and passenger trains over the first 31 miles of track to Newcastle in June The line began in Sacramento, the railroad's western terminus. But as the railroad continued through the foothills of the Sierras, construction became more difficult.
The "Newcastle Gap" required a bridge spanning about 1, feet long and 60 feet high. Another bridge of similar size was located a few miles away. It took some men with 30 carts and 35 wagons to complete the embankment near the bridge, known as the "big fill. The arrival of the railroad transformed Newcastle.
Although the town was located in the heart of gold country, Newcastle became known more for its abundant and varied orchards. The Newcastle Fruit Growers Shipping and Preserving Association was created in the late s, lending the town the title of Placer County's largest fruit shipping center.
Commerce and business quickly sprung up after the railroad's arrival. The post office opened in , followed soon after by a grocery store and boot maker.
With its 1,foot elevation and breathtaking view across the Sacramento Valley, Newcastle quickly became known as the "gem of the foothills. Central Pacific also began construction during the Civil War when labor was scarce. Crocker suggested that the railroad hire these available workers.
Central Pacific Superintendent Strobridge resisted. He agreed to hire 50 for a month as a trial. The experiment was an enormous success, and by several thousand Chinese worked on Central Pacific. The Chinese workers' perilous labor played a critical role transforming the country and the communities along the transcontinental route.
Learn more about their influence and accomplishments in a number of profiles to follow. Auburn got its name in by miners from Auburn, New York, who journeyed to the area prospecting for gold. When the gold eventually gave out, Auburn appeared to be headed to a rapid decline. Its arrival created a whole new section of the community. Due to the area's geography, the railroad was placed about a mile east of the major settlement at the time, Wood's Dry Digging.
The city expanded eastward and began to merge with the older part of town and a new railroad depot. Over a two-year period beginning in , the Southern Pacific — which had merged Central Pacific into its system in — double-tracked the area in Auburn, creating an eastbound line and a westbound line. A major trestle was constructed, which now passes over Interstate 80 and has become one of Auburn's most recognizable symbols.
Before it became Colfax, this important railroad town was first called Alder Grove and then later Illinoistown by a group of miners from Illinois. The speaker of the house at the time, Schuyler Colfax, was sent by President Abraham Lincoln to check the progress of the tracks.
So charmed were the citizens by his good cheer and oratory skills that they decided to name the settlement after him. The town remained the terminus of the line for more than a year. As the iron rails were winding their way up the steep slope of the Sierra NevadaMountains, large temporary camps were set up to house and feed construction workers, including a large number of Chinese laborers.
It was noted at the time that the Chinese workers did not get sick as often as the other laborers. One reason may have been because they boiled their water for tea, and thus, had little or no cases of dysentery. Their diet also may have contributed to their low sickness rate. Truckee's existence began in as Gray's Station, named for Joseph Gray's roadhouse on the trans-Sierra wagon road. A blacksmith named Samuel S. The Central Pacific Railroad selected Truckee as the name of its railroad station by August , even though the tracks would not reach the station until a year later.
The town purportedly was named after a Paiute chief who yelled "Tro-kay," meaning "everything is alright," when encountering a party of immigrants. Among them was the Donner Party, who assumed the chief was yelling his own name, and the town became known as Truckee. Having weathered two years over Donner Summit, Central Pacific was relieved to finally reach the Truckee staging area in spring Truckee became a major supply stop for both crews and materials needed to extend the railroad into the Nevada desert.
Truckee continued growing and prospering along the Central Pacific line, supporting transportation for a burgeoning logging industry. Later in the 20th century, Truckee became known not only as an entrance to prime logging territory, but as a site for winter recreation and a great Hollywood filming location thanks to its picturesque mountains.
These communities endured great upheaval, surviving in spite of harsh conditions and a changing cultural landscape. This is their story, as told by Tribal members. When you see something that you have never seen before, do you become curious or fearful? How much do you trust your judgment that your decision to approach is safe?
Hiding in the shadows so as not to be noticed, who were these strangers? We can only speculate based on our own experiences and some of the stories told by our elders. Tribal Elder Helen Pubigee Timbimboo recalls that she was told as a young girl to run and hide, they are going to take you or kill you. They are within one-quarter inch of actual size, and are fully functional in all respects. What happened to the original locomotives?
This size and type of engine was outmoded and under-powered by the turn of the century. There eventually came a time when they just were not worth repairing any more. The N o. Were the original engines really that shiny and colorful? They were built during the Victorian Age, and reflected the designs and craftsmanship of the era. The locomotives were both the workhorse and advertising of the railroads. Can we ride the trains?
We have no passenger coaches, thus there is no place for anyone to ride. Vocabulary Note: a train is a locomotive pulling cars or rolling stock. Without the cars it is not a train, it is simply a locomotive or engine. Do these locomotives burn wood or coal? The Jupiter burns wood, and the N o. The same fuels as the originals. How many people were at the original ceremony on May 10, ? Accounts vary, anywhere from to 1, Why did the grading crews pass each other for miles?
There was a fierce competition between the two railroad companies for subsidy bonds and land grants. For each mile of track laid the government paid twenty square miles of land and issued subsidy bonds worth many thousands of dollars.
0コメント