EXHIBITS
A World Transformed: The Transcontinental Railroad and Utah: The Era of Railroad Construction in Utah
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The Era of Railroad Construction in Utah

Utah Southern Railroad in Nephi, 1870s. From the collections of the Utah State Historical Society.

Utah Southern Railroad roundhouse in Salt Lake City, circa 1880. From the collections of the Utah State Historical Society.
After the Golden Spike Ceremony on May 10, 1869, Brigham Young contacted James Henry Martineau and asked him to survey a line for the Utah Central Railroad connecting Ogden to Salt Lake City. The line was completed in January 1870. In addition to the Utah Central, Brigham Young and Mormon leaders began construction on three more Utah railroads in the early 1870s: the Northern (from Ogden to Cache Valley), the Southern (from Salt Lake City to Provo), and the Eastern (from Echo to Park City).
The leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints insisted that these railroads not be controlled by outside interests. Financing was difficult because of a lack of cash in Utah, and they were constructed through a combination of individual LDS Church callings, newly immigrated converts, and donated labor. These railroads faced difficulties, as did most in the West, because profits did not keep up with the high costs of running and maintaining a railroad. Despite these obstacles, 151 miles of track had been built by 1873. The economic depression of 1873 to 1877 strained these enterprises, and regardless of the desire for local control, all were eventually purchased by the Union Pacific.
The Northern Utah Railroad and Corinne, Utah
