Which pioneer trail was the transcontinental railroad built on

When did The Pioneer Trail happen? When was The Pioneer Trail created? When did the Oregon trail begin? What is the pioneer trail? Where did Mormon trail group originate? Why did people stop using the Oregon trail? Trail to the south west? Which railroad line crossed farthest south on the western trail? What are some of the trails used by the pioneers?

Daniel Boone an early pioneer created a trail known as the? Trail being built across Missouri along an old railroad route that is also a state park?

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The transcontinental railroad was formally completed with the driving of the golden spike on May 10, The turn of the twentieth century brought yet another form of transportation—the automobile. Yet a different set of challenges faced the planners of these roadways when compared to railroad builders. Automobiles could climb steeper grades and make tighter turns than could a railroad train.

The general goal was to follow the shortest available routes between neighboring towns or population centers. In many areas it would follow existing rail routes, but in others it would strike out on its own.

The Lincoln Highway crossed the Mississippi into Iowa at Clinton and then generally followed the route of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad across the northern part of that state. This route was more level than the central route through Des Moines or the more southerly route taken by the Mormon pioneers. In Nebraska, the highway generally followed the Union Pacific Railroad. At first, the Lincoln Highway followed the stair-stepped boundaries between sections of land, requiring numerous rail crossings.

These became the scenes of many fatal accidents and consequent delays for the railroad. Therefore, the UP was willing to give up some of its land so the highway could have a straighter route parallel to, rather than across, the tracks. In Wyoming, the highway continued to follow the general route of the railroad. The roadway often ran along ranch fences but sometimes crossed them, creating a new set of challenges. It said so right on the gate.

And some days we would open and close dozens of these gates. Interestingly, one argument advanced in favor of this route was that there were already two paved miles between the two cities, near Farmington, Utah.

This existing pavement, even though minimal, was actually thought of as a major advantage. Since their arrival in the valley, the pioneers had sought an easier route for those who would come later. Parley P. He did so in June and reported that a better road could be constructed through this canyon.

The infusion of capital as a result of the gold rush made such a road-building venture practicable. A significant refinement of the existing highway system came in with the Federal-Aid Highway Act, signed into effect by Dwight D.

The 2, miles of Interstate 80 formed the first interstate highway spanning the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It opened on August 22, Interestingly, the formal dedication of this highway took place only about fifty miles from the spot where the driving of the golden spike had completed the transcontinental railroad over a century earlier. Unlike earlier highways that typically connected nearby towns, the interstates typically followed the optimum routes between major urban centers, often leaving smaller communities off to one side.

In sum, it seems that in pioneer times, topography was the major influence affecting the choice of routes. The Platte Valley offered abundant water and feed, as well as easy grades.

Read More in Wild West Magazine. At this isolated airfield the passengers waited out the tempest. After a restless night of little sleep, the group flew east again the next day only to be forced by dense fog to make a second emergency landing, this time in Laramie. Like a skilled magician, the railroads of the 19 th century had transformed America in ways that awed and dazzled onlookers. Railroads of the West excelled at creating industrial order where no pattern of organization existed apart from nature, of being agents of change that essentially tamed the frontier.

Consider, for example, how surveyors used precisely calibrated instruments to mathematically quantify the West as never before in terms of curvature, elevation and distance as they staked out prospective railroad lines.

The process of transforming the West continued, and even accelerated, once actual railroad operations began. Approximation was no longer good enough in the West the railroads made. Something seemingly so simple as the space between the rails could not vary by more than a fraction of an inch, or the locomotives and cars would derail. Over time, and with occasional prodding from the federal and state regulators, everything from paper thickness to envelope sizes in company offices was standardized within the railroad industry.

No railroad company tolerated a drunken employee endangering the safety of passengers or fellow employees. Conversely, loyal employees who avoided intoxicating beverages received preferential treatment in promotion.

No ambitious railroader dared to spend a leisurely evening at a boisterous saloon, one of the institutions synonymous with the Wild West.

In the fall of a group of well dressed ladies and gentlemen gathered with much fanfare in the wilds of Montana Territory.

In their stylishness and cool elegance they looked conspicuously out of place. Some had traveled from as far as England, the Netherlands, and Germany to this isolated patch of sagebrush and sand on the banks of the Clark Fork River, and they had done so willingly. Guests of the Northern Pacific Railroad had traveled to Gold Creek aboard five luxury trains to witness the driving of a last spike that mark ed the formal opening of the first transcontinental rails linking the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley with Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean.

After the loud band music, the flowery oratory, and the last sledgehammer blows drove a golden spike into place, the Glittering Ones reboarded their special trains and left Gold Creek, most of them never to return to Montana. The day had been rich in symbolism. For one moment the old Wild West popularly associated with Indians, fur trappers and pioneer settlers stood face to face with the new West of high finance, nationwide mark ets and rapid advances in communication and transportation.

A little more than two months later in , on another day rich in symbolism, North Americans collectively reset their clocks and watches to standard time, and like the symbolism of business moguls driving a golden spike in the wilds of Montana, the new system of timekeeping was an unadorned statement of railroad power.

Our present time system was invented to resolve the confusion caused for the railroads of North America by dozens of local time standards—hundreds, in fact. Time back in the days of trail travel to Oregon and California needed only be measured casually by noting the position of the sun or by mark ing off each passing day. Every spring in the s and s individuals and families traveled west by wagon train, leaving the familiar Missouri Valley and rolling slowly across the lush grasses of the Great Plains.

Their collective goal was to reach Golden California or fertile Oregon by September or October before snowfalls blocked mountain passes. The Donner Party resorted to cannibalism because it lost the seasonal race to the West Coast and became trapped by deep snow in the Sierras during the winter of Before the fall of when the railroads created standard time, local variations prevailed throughout the West, and in most places approximate time was good enough to meet the demands of daily life.

Knowing others would follow, they improved the trail and built support facilities. Businesses, such as ferries, were established to help finance the movement.

They did not hire professional guides. Instead, they followed existing trails, used maps and accounts of early explorers, and gathered information from travelers and frontiersmen they met along the way. An early odometer was designed and built to record their mileage while traveling on the trail. In the end, strong group unity and organization made the Mormon movement more orderly and efficient than other emigrants traveling to Oregon and California. The Mormon pioneer experience is closely tied to the formation, growth, and development of their church, which was founded by Joseph Smith, April 6, , in Fayette, N.

According to the accounts of Mormon history, Joseph Smith translated a document from golden plates given to him by an angel. This document, The Book of Mormon , became the cornerstone of the new religion, and the name Mormon was applied to those who subscribed to these beliefs.

The church headquarters subsequently moved to Ohio, Missouri, and, in the spring of , Nauvoo, Ill. It remained there until , when the church moved beyond the Rocky Mountains into then unsettled Mexican territory in the Great Basin.

There, Mormon leaders hoped to be insulated from further harassment, antagonism, and persecution. Membership grew rapidly from to , and the church prospered. Hostility, fear, and controversy, however, surrounded the church. The rapid growth of church membership, the financial success of the members and their church, religious beliefs that were outside mainstream Christian tradition, the practice of plural marriage polygamy , a large well-armed militia, the blurring of lines between church and state, and the perception by some non-Mormons that the church was a threat all fueled intolerance.

Hostilities escalated, and on June 27, , Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by an angry mob while jailed in Carthage, Ill. By the Mormon population in and around Nauvoo had grown to more than 11,, making it one of the largest cities in the state.

In September foes burned more than Mormon homes and farm buildings outside Nauvoo in an attempt to force the Mormons to leave. A move to the Far West had been discussed by church leaders as early as , with Oregon, California, and Texas considered as potential destinations.

Subsequently, the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin became the prime candidates for settlement. The first movement of the Mormons from Nauvoo to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake occurred in two segments: one in , the other in The first segment, across Iowa to the Missouri River, covered around miles. After crossing the Mississippi River, the journey across Iowa followed primitive territorial roads and Indian trails. The initial party reached the Missouri River on June 14 of that year, having taken more than four months to complete the trip.

Some of the emigrants established a settlement called Kanesville on the Iowa side of the river. Others moved across the river into the area of present-day north Omaha, Nebr. The Mormons left Nauvoo earlier than planned because of the revocation of their city charter, growing rumors of U. This early departure exposed them to the elements in the worst of winter. Heavy rains later turned the rolling plains of southern Iowa into a quagmire of axle-deep mud.

Furthermore, few people carried adequate provisions for the trip. The weather, general unpreparedness, and lack of experience in moving such a large group of people, all contributed to the difficulties they endured.

Along this first part of the trail, the Mormons developed skills for moving en masse. They established several semi-permanent camps, including Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah, where they planted crops and built facilities to assist those who followed.

It was during this leg of the journey that Brigham Young first organized them into companies of s, 50s, and 10s.