1866: Work Hard, Play Hard

July, 1866
UP crews complete 60 miles of track.

October 6, 1866
UP crews pass the 100th meridian line in Nebraska, guaranteeing the railroad the irrevocable right to continue westward. Durant throws a grand "100th Meridian Excursion" for guests, featuring a mock Pawnee ambush.

November, 1866
North Platte, Nebraska sits at the end of the UP line, harboring a potent combination of saloons, prostitutes, and criminals.

Hell on Wheels

"Last night a whiskey-seller and a gambler had a fracas, in which the 'sport' shot the whiskey dealer and the friends of the latter shot the gambler. Nobody knows what will become of these riff-raff when the tracks meet..."
-- report in the San Francisco Daily Alta California, April 28, 1869

"End of track" towns sprung up at the ever-moving terminus of the UP line. A collection of temporary, transportable structures, they enticed workers with the age-old vices of drink, gambling and prostitution. Saloons and gambling dens often operated 24 hours a day, puncturing the previously quiet prairie nights with the sounds of wild abandon. The raucous, mobile debauchery became known as "Hell on Wheels."

One such place, Benton, Wyoming, was described by writer Samuel Bowles: "by day disgusting, by night dangerous, almost everybody dirty, many filthy, and with the marks of lowest vice; averaging a murder a day; gambling, drinking, hurdy-gurdy dancing and the vilest of sexual commerce."

Civil War Veterans Work Force

"It was the best organized, best equipped and best disciplined work force I have ever seen. I used it several times as a fighting force and it took no longer to put it into fighting line than it did to form it for daily work."
-- chief engineer Grenville Dodge

The end of the Civil War created a flood of young veterans looking for work. They were accustomed to sleeping outside, facing danger and hardship, and working as part of a large, coordinated group. In short, many veterans transitioned easily to the massive construction work. A number of them were employed as graders, preparing the land staked out by the surveyors in Indian territory. Grenville Dodge, a former Union general, was made the UP's chief engineer.