Geography 417
California for Educators
Rail Transforms California
Objectives
Students will
identify the key events and actors in the early rail period of California.
Students will
explain the effect of rail on Californias economic, political and demographic
changes.
California
Standards
4.4 Students explain how California became an
agricultural and industrial power, tracing the transformation of the California
economy and its political and cultural development since the 1850s.
Understand the
story and lasting influence of the Pony Express, Overland Mail Service, Western
Union, and the building of the transcontinental railroad, including the
contributions of Chinese workers to its construction.
Discuss
immigration and migration to California between 1850 and 1900, including the
diverse composition of those who came; the countries of origin and their
relative locations; and conflicts and accords among the diverse groups (e.g.,
the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act).
Describe rapid
American immigration
CSET
3.2 Economic,
Political, and Cultural Development Since the 1850s. Candidates for Multiple
Subject Teaching Credentials....
Surprisingly, no
CSET standard directly mentions rail or the effect of rail in California.
Web Link
California
History On-Line
Overview
The completion of
the transcontinental railroad in 1869 was a major event in California history.
The iron horse
linked California with the rest of the nation and ushered in an era of economic
consolidation.
The Californians
who controlled this new technology became the wealthiest and most powerful men
of their generation.
The railroad also
stirred intense controversy. It was denounced by its opponents as a grasping
and greedy octopus.
Overland Mail
A major problem
for California and the Federal Government was efficient transportation and
communication between California and The States.
The US Government
authorized funds in 1857 to deliver mail via the overland route.
Passengers,
including Mark Twain came via the same stage.
Three weeks,
brutal journey.
Stage - Figure
Charlotte
Parkhurst
One
of those colorful California characters that seems to occupy a favored spot in
official state history.
Posed
as a man for many years so she could be employed by Wells Fargo as a stage
coach driver.
Rough
and tumble, hard living, eye-patched legend.
Pony Express
A
scheme to bring the mail to California faster than the stage coaches.
Multiple
riders, many dozens of horses.
10 days from
Missouri to San Francisco.
To expensive and
was abandoned when the first transcontinental telegraph became operational.
Lasted
about 1 year.
Highly
romantic.
Camel Caravans
Jeff Davis
inspired a plan to use Camels to carry people and goods across the desert to
Southern California.
It worked, but
not well enough to keep the Camel Caravans active.
Lasted
less than 5 years.
Telegraph
Telegraph
invented in 1844 by Samuel Morse.
Fall of 1861, the
line reached California and shortly thereafter a message was sent from San
Francisco to Abe Lincoln.
The Iron Horse
Steam had been
known as a source of power for centuries, but it was at the turn of the 1800s
that it became commercially viable source of locomotive power.
Railroads also
have an ancient history, but began steam/ commercial service in the early
1800s.
Theodore
Judah
Juday built a short-line railroad between Sacramento and
Folsom in 1854
Realized
the potential for a transcontinental RR.
Convinced some
Sacramento area businessmen to invest in the project, but split with them
Died
before he could get back East to find other investors.
The Big Four
Name
given to the four chief investors in the transcontinental railroad.
Central Pacific
Southern Pacific
Became very wealthy and
perhaps even more politically powerful.
Leland Stanford
Lawyer
from East, then miner, then grocer.
Big personality
and he became the leader of the group.
Became governor
in 1862
Later
a senator.
Stanford U named
after him, founded by his wife.
Charles Crocker
Another
grocer and dry goods merchant from Sacramento.
Actually oversaw
the construction of the railroad.
Collis P. Huntington
Vice
President of the railroad.
Hardware
merchant from
Sacramento.
Ruthless
capitalist and the private leader of the big four
Later became
president of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
Mark Hopkins
Partner with
Huntington.
Apparently
a good accountant and keen detail man.
Government Aid
Though the big
four and Judah get great credit for buidling the
railroad (and the former get great wealth), it was government funding that made
the project possible.
Enoumous tax credits, loans and land grants given to the
railroads.
12
million acres of land given to the railroads, about 12% of the states land.
Across the Sierras
Began
on January 8, 1863 in Sacramento.
Most of the work
was performed by Chinese labor, who Stanford, now governor, had encouraged to
come.
The Sierras were
a massive challenge: mountains, snow, deep gorges, and hard granite ground the
project to a virtual standstill on numerous occasions.
The Summit Tunnel
took a year to complete.
Promontory Point
Promontory Utah
is where the Central Pacific met the Union Pacific rail lines.
Chinese and Irish
workers
Famous
photograph, but staged.
Golden
Spikes, etc.
100 years after
the first mission.
East
Meets West (fig)
Economic Impact
High expectations
for positive economic impact, but the immediate impact was negative and
required some years of structural readjustment.
Competition!
Overstocked
warehouses.
Too much land
speculation
Unemployment.
Refrigerated
cars and the Von Thunen model.
Chinese in California
Excellent
workers, skilled and brave.
Pliable,
which made them favored by the railroads who recruited them by the thousands.
Deserve a great
deal of credit for the prosperity that was to come to California.
Hundreds of
thousands of MEN came to the US, mostly from Southern China to escape poverty.
$1 was a good
wage.
After the Golden Spike
.
The depression of the 1870s was blamed on the Chinese.
Anti-Chinese
riots and the ghettoization of Chinese.
The Workingmen's
Party in San Francisco,
New constitution
in 1879 had multiple anti-Chinese provisions.
1882 United
States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Not fully
repealed until 1943.
Poster
for Workingmans Party (fig)
The Workingmen's Party
Founded in the
late 1870s in San Francisco, it was a populist movement that largely revolved
around the removal of Chinese and the demonization of the railroad.
Lead
by Denis Kearney, an Irishman.
Why might an
Irishman lead such a party?
The 1879 Constitution
Also
a product of the populist sentiments that helped the Workingmans Party.
Loads of
anti-Chinese provisions such as: No Chinese shall be employed on any state,
county, municipal, or other public work, except in punishment for
crime." and ..all
necessary power to the incorporated cities and towns of this state for the
removal of Chinese without the limits of such cities and towns, or for their
location within prescribed portions of those limits."
The Boom of the Eighties
By the 1880s, the
economic climate changed for the better.
Much
of the boom driven by housing and land sales.
Railroad was a
leading land developer and marketer of California as a lifestyle destination.
The Octopus
The Octopus was a
name given to the railroad to describe the extensive and suffocating range of
its power.
They were
corrupt, but the real power lie in their monopoly over
transportation in the state, which was intensified by Californias isolation.
Mansions on Nob
Hill
(figure)
The Big Four under Attack
Frequently
attacked by the media and populist rivals, but generally to
little avail since the big four controlled the legislature and often the
governor as well.
One bill was
passed restricting the publication of political cartoons.
Frank Norris
Wrote
the famous book The Octopus which gave the railroad its ominous moniker.
Told of the
struggle between the wheat farmers of California and the railroad, at the mercy
of which most farmers found themselves.
What is a
monopoly? Oligopoly?
The Octopus
Charges and Defeats
A host of
allegations against the railroad were borne out by disgruntled formers
employees and by inter-railroad feuding.
Several
anti-railroad politicians were elected.
The LA harbor was
built at San Pedro
for example, which was not favored by the railroads.
The railroad was
unable to defer the repayment of their loans in the 1890s.
