Rival Rails: The Race to Build America’s Greatest Transcontinental Railroad

By: Walter R. Borneman

It was a frenetic race to construct a railroad across the great American Southwest. The Civil War was over and the nation was eager to expand. Brigham Young was at first resistant to the idea of the iron rails. He had moved himself and his people to the Great Basin to find a place of peace after having been thrown out of Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio. He did not want outsiders in. But, it was inevitable, and there was money to be made. Heber Kimball once said in jest that Brigham Young’s God was money. There was money to be made in bringing the rails to Utah’s environs. The Prophet changed his stance. In the process, he must have met his opponents. It will be interesting to see how those relationships worked out.