The Experiment

Reluctantly Central Pacific's construction boss, James Strobridge, agreed to go along with Charlie Crocker's idea of using Chinese workmen to build the railroad through the tough mountain terrain.  With their trademark baggy blue pants and long pigtails, they were met by laughter, insult and curses from the white workers - just as Strobridge had predicted.  The Chinese, however, paid no attention.  They went to work with picks and shovels and a will that amazed all who watched.

Strobridge was so impressed he hired 50 more Chinese, then exhausting the supply in California, he sent for 1000 workers from China itself.  They worked from dawn to dusk through all kinds of weather.  They were disciplined, sober, and fearless...so fearless that even when avalanches took then, the survivors worked even harder to make up the difference!

Labor wasn't the only problem facing the Central Pacific's early days.  Supplies were constantly scarce.  There was little industry in California at that time, and almost every supply needed to build a railroad had to be shipped from the East, either through Panama or around Cape Horn.  Rails that cost $92 in the East would cost $141 by the time they got to San Francisco.  Some materials were not even available at any price.

Despite all this, Crocker and his crews persevered.  Only eight miles of track was laid between September 1865 and May of 1866 before the Chinese came to work.  In the six months after their arrival, 28 miles of Sierra Nevada track was laid.  The following year, 1867, during  a year of blizzards, 15 miles were blasted through the mountains. 

By 1868 the railroad was down the eastern slopes to the desert below.  The government subsidies and grants were being awarded and the Central Pacific was racing to meet the Union Pacific.  By the early spring of 1869 the Central Pacific was across Nevada and into Utah.  The two railroads were drawing near to joining each other.

Next time...the final spike
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Today in Pioneer History: "On May 14, 1804, One year after the United States doubled its territory with the  Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition leaves St. Louis, Missouri, on a mission to explore the Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

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Who Wants to Work on That?

Charles Crocker, former dry-goods merchant, was an outspoken, in-your-face kind of guy, and President of the Central Pacific Railroad.  A practical man, he was a hands-on president who didn't take to budget and plans of the financial side of things.  He wanted to be in the thick of the construction action, sharing in the dangers of rock slides, avalanches, and below-zero temperatures that killed many a worker.  Crocker acted like a field marshal, rally troops, plotting strategies and supervising the battles against the elements.

Crocker's biggest problem was the lack of labor.  With the lure of silver and gold in Nevada, why would any man endure back-breaking work for $35 a month when across the mountain fortunes were to be had for less work?  So workers stayed just long enough to get a free ride to the head of the line before taking off across the Sierras to Nevada.

Once the construction reached the Sierra mountains themselves, the dangerous and difficult work was more demanding and the Irishmen, who made up most of the labor force, refused to continue.  Crocker decided that California's Chinese population would be a perfect solution to his problem since they lived in shantytowns as servants, laundymen, and peddlers. 

In early 1865, Crocker's construction boss, James Strobridge, was authorized to hire these men.  He refused, stating that the white workers would walk off the job in force and refuse to work with the Chinese.  He also didn't think the physically smaller Asians could do the job of breaking granite, blasting through the wooded areas, or laying rails and spikes.  Crocker argued that the ancestors of these men had built the Great Wall of China for Heaven's sake!  At that Strobridge relented.

Next time...The Experiment
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Today in Pioneer History: "On May 10,  1869,  the presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, and drive a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connects their railroads. This made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time in U.S. history.