So as part of my History of the US West Class, I was assigned a paper on basically something in history that changed the region/state/area. I have tossed around the idea before about composing sometihng that covers the entire Railroading History of the state of Wyoming and then possibly finding a way to publish it. Well the assgnment will definitely be a great starting point and motivation to work on the project. So, I am asking this:
If ANYONE has anything credible, online, in a book, newspaper stories, ANYTHING, I would love to see it. In the final published project I don’t want to miss anything. I want this to even cover railroads that planned to come into the state but didn’t. Anything that would fit. I have a few lists of all the railroads up to January 1 2009 and plan to research them all.
I have kind of thought to set it up in this fashion:
Wyoming: Rails That Feed America
I. A Short History of Wyoming.
The Union Pacific (UP)
The Chicago and Northwestern (C&NW)
The Chicago Burlington and Quincey (CB&Q)
Shortlines
The Rise of Coal
Dieselization and the demise of the Giants
Death of Passenger Service
Modern Day Operations
Any input is welcome and when it nears completion it will be posted for you all to read.
Well, one railroad that probably didn’t affect Wyoming too much was a line over the “South Pass”. It was finally constructed - in the 1960s - but as an iron ore road branch line for U.S.Steel, not as a common carrier railroad that went to someplace else. See:
Hey, Robert Stuart, a railroad finally made it Trains, September 1967 page 26
United States Steel’s line across South Pass in Wyoming
( “JAMES, MARTIN”, PASS, WYOMING, TRN )
I’ll see if the James Vance geography & railroads book that RWM and others have discussed on here about 6 weeks ago has much on Wyoming - if so, I’ll let you know later today. Good luck with it !
Many great book on the history of railroads and Wyoming, too. Any history about the Union Pacific will be a step in the right direction, then follow its bibliography. Your local library should be brimming with material.
I’d have to believe the historical societies of the railroads through that area would be a gold mine of information as well. I’m a member of the C&NWHS and I know the society’s archives are growing all the time and are very well managed.
“I was assigned a paper on basically something in history that changed the region/state/area.” What I’m seeing so far in your outline is a comprehensive history of the railroads in Wyoming, but nothing about how they affected or changed the state or region. It seems to me that your teacher isn’t so much interested in having you recount the history of the railroads in a vacuum, but instead would rather prefer to have you analyze and discuss how the railroads facilitated, shaped and altered the settlement and development of the state and its resources, and vice-versa - or something more like that ? [%-)] Maybe some clarification of the intent of the assignment in this regard would be helpful ?
You probably do want to get hold of a copy of the James E. Vance, Jr. book, “THE NORTH AMERICAN RAILROAD: Its Origin, Evolution, and Geography”, published by Johns Hopkins University Press - 1st ed. 1995, ISBN 0801845734. As an example of why, Wyoming is listed in the index as being on pages 149, 175, 178-9, 181, 205, and 237; South Pass is on pp.149, 153, 159, 174, and 177. Most of the cited text relates to the UP’s route across Sherman Hill, but there is also some interesting discussion about why that route was chosen instead of the Oregon Trail route, and also about the natural resources along the way - I’ll say no more than that. Nothing much about the post-1900 time frame, though.
Your thesis is “Railways caused change to happen in Wyoming.” The proof comes when you list things that changed in Wyoming that would not have happened but for the railway. The railway itself is thus a premise to your thesis, and it needs almost no explanation by you except a brief overview of the chronology of construction and the strategic map into which these railways fit. In other words, less than 10% of your paper is actually about railways. The other 90% is about the Wyoming economy.
Wyoming economic actitivity that would not have occurred but for the railway, in brief:
Coal mining, starting in the 1860s at Carbon and Rock Springs, rising to a major industry at Hanna, Rock Springs, Superior, and Kemmerer, declining in the 1940-1965 era, resuming in 1970 at Hanna and emerging into world prominence in the Powder River Basin in the mid-1970s
Stock raising, both cattle and sheep
Substantial economic activity created by railway jobs leading to the rise of Pine Bluffs, Cheyenne, Laramie, Rawlins, Rock Springs, Green River, and Evanston, as significant communities, and to a lesser extent Sheridan and the CB&Q-served communities
Sugar refining at Torrington
Lumber production in the Medicine Bow and Snowy Range (Saratoga, Fox Park, Walden)
Iron and base metal production – Rudefaha, Atlantic City
Early tourism at Yellowstone
Wyoming economic activity not contingent upon the railway – it would have happened anyway:
Oil production and refining
Uranium mining
Defense facilities (Warren AFB, etc.)
Modern tourism – Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, Grand Tetons, hunting, fishing
I would devote a chapter to these non-railway caused economic activities because it strongly helps prove your thesis.
To prove your thesis, you would need to write an economic history of Wyoming through the lens of rail servic
Anyway? Maybe. Wouldn’t there be a case to be made, that the timeframe, the extent, and the viability of these three activities were greatly affected by there being a railroad to serve the area? For example, I would bet there was a railroad to serve nearly every military base built, at one time.
PRB coal is much less of a factor in Wyoming’s modern day economy than Green River Basin coal or railroad jobs a century ago. Perhaps only 10% of the importance measured in relative number of jobs, free cash flow, taxes paid, etc.
You could have trucked the coal to Warren AFB from Hanna.
The petroleum industry has never been contingent upon rail service to happen; it’s a nice-to-have to deliver the pipe, that’s all. Outbound crude or refined products in significant quantity has always moved by pipeline.
Uranium mining likewise has not been contingent upon rail service to happen. The outbound product (concentrate) is in very small quantity.
All three activities have been located and developed without regard to the availability of rail because they did not need rail to achieve viable economic thresholds.
I see what you mean about #2 and #3, #1, however… Sure, you could have trucked the coal to Warren AFB from Hanna. But didn’t the AFB end up where it did, because there was a railroad there, to bring in construction supplies at the inception? Put another way, if there were no rail lines in Wyoming, would that particular AFB have ended up somewhere else-along a railroad line? I’d guess Wyoming wouldn’t have this (present) economic activity, were it not contingent on the (past availability of ) the railroad.
But isn’t there a “chicken/egg” element missing here? I mean, it is fine to say that Wyoming would have developed without railroads, etc. But in reality didn’t what develop happen because the railroad was the first thing there? How much of what was developed because of the railroad actually is a result of the devlopments such as natural resources thus made possible by the railroad? In otherwords, when the development occurred the railroad was the only thing there, the roads, towns, technologies,et al, came about because of what the railroad first made possible. Yes, such advances would have come over a longer eventuality without the railroad, but the railroad has to be considered the catylist at the moment and nothing else could have been.
I wouldn’t say it is the main theme of the paper. The main theme is basically the historical occurances of railroading in Wyoming and thier effects. But I think I will pose the question where would Wyoming, the country, and the world be without the railroads? I actually think quite often, Where would the country be without Wyoming’s Coal, Oil, Gas, Uranium, Soda Ash, Electricity? Wyoming is the Nations Largest Coal and Trona Producer, Which is why I titled it “Rails that Feed America” .
There’s no chicken/egg problem because railways were not built on the come, they were built with specific traffic opportunities in mind, both local and regional. The UP-CP route was very much selected in mind of local and regional traffic opportunities, such as a major last-minute realignment of the UP to get it closer to the coal seams at Carbon. It’s true that the railway was necessary for some of the economic activity to occur which otherwise would have not occurred, but it was not sufficient. The railway didn’t create the traffic, it enabled the traffic, by reducing the cost of transportation. I have spent far too much time working for the railway to remain any longer in the mindset that railways are there for the benefit of the railway, they are there solely for the benefit of the shipper.
The original poster did not propose a thesis stating that “railways made economic advancement happen, and much sooner than would have occurred without them.” His thesis states Wyoming changed as a result of the railway. That’s a much narrower thesis than the broad approach. No one needs to argue the general case – it was amply demonstrat
So I FINALLY got final clarification on the project. The project is a paper on somtihng in History in the American West, and my re approved my Idea of “The Railroad History of Wyoming.”
On to the Research! I have just finished up about 3 hours poking through the WWCC library, and this evening I am picking up a friends collection of the Annals of Wyoming. I figured that would be a good place to start.
Paul, Believe it or not, I have been looking for that book, THE NORTH AMERICAN RAILROAD: Its Origin, Evolution, and Geography all week and finally found it. In the Coe Library at the University of Wyoming. Have a friend doing a long term checkout for me and is bringing it home when he comes for easter…
Also, I am going to contact the UPHS CNWHS and WyHS to see what I can find from them.
I agree with RWM on Vance’s book being an excellent starting poin, it gives a broad overview of why the lines were built, why the successful lines were successful, and perhaps more important for Wyoming, why they were built where they were built (geography). One caveat about the book is that since it does try to cover the North American RR system in one volume, it can be short on details when compared to a book on a specific road.
Having the road built through southern Wyoming was almost inevitable as the biggest source of income in the west until the late 1870’s was the Comstock Lode and the route through southern Wyoming was the most practical.
I now have almost 7 pages and have only covered the C&NW and UP as well as an overview of Wyoming History.
I am now at a block of sorts. I am having a serious difficulty finding the Wyoming history of the CB&Q. I have contacted the CB&Q Historical Society, they have yet to get back ot me after almost a week. A couple links online are helpful, but not totally credible IMHO.
I will definitely be buying Vance’s book, It was a good read and very interesting. (at least the parts I was using to write the paper.) Tried finding the September 1967 issue of Trains, but no luck unless I want to spend $80. And I actually forgot that I had this book I bought in Yellowstone that was all about the role of the Railroads role on the development of the Park.
Looking forward to gettign it finished, so you all can read it! Thanks for all your help everyone!