All Aboard! The Transcontinental Railroad Board Game

Copyright 2020 by Gary L. Pullman

 

As President Chester Alan Arthur points out in On the Track of Vengeance, the fourth novel of An Adventure of the Old West series, “The transcontinental railroad has wrought great changes, mostly for the good of the country.” (The problems associated with the unprecedented project—many of which were caused by the project's leaders themselves—form the backbone of the novel's plot.)

Despite the problems associated with its construction, the building of a railroad that spanned the continent, “from sea to shining sea,” was, by any standard of measure, a momentous accomplishment, and it was celebrated and commemorated in various ways, one of which was the creation of The Transcontinental Railroad board game.

According to the Board Game Geek website, the game's theme is “the building of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860's [sic].” Two players, one of whom represents the Union Pacific Railroad, the other of whom plays for the Central Pacific Railroad, “draw from a common deck of 80 cards,” six of the “seven suits” of which symbolize one of the needs associated with the construction of the railroad, such as “jobs, money, [and] supplies.” The seventh suit represents difficulties the construction project encounters. In play resembling that of poker, the players vie for markers, and the “first to get 100” of these tokens completes his or her “line to Promontory Summit first,” winning the game.

The game gives players a sense of the scope and difficulty of the railroad's construction and offers an opportunity to discuss, research, and learn more about the biggest engineering, technological, and construction feat of nineteenth-century America.

How to Read a Wanted Poster

Copyright 2019 by Gary L. Pullman

Wanted posters were issued by both government law-enforcement agencies and by private companies or other organizations—whoever had the money and the motive to put a price, in the form of a “reward,” on the outlaw's head.

Bounty hunters hunted such prey, as did sheriffs, U. S. marshals, and other lawmen, any of whom was eligible for the reward.

The fugitive from justice was often represented by a sketch; less often, by a photograph; and occasionally by nothing more than a description.

Although, thanks to Hollywood, we often think that rewards were issued for tens of thousands of dollars, most were considerably less. Of course, money went a lot further in the latter half of the nineteenth century than it does today. Five-hundred dollars was a good reward; today, it would be equivalent to $11,162. Only the most notorious outlaws would fetch $5,000 or (rarely) $10,000. The Jesse James poster's reward, equal to about $111,623 today, indicates he was “wanted,” indeed.

Above the photograph, sketch, or description of the outlaw, the word “WANTED” would appear, centered. Government agencies and organizations were not permitted to offer rewards for the return of dead fugitives, so the Jesse James poster offering its $5,000 reward for the outlaw, “DEAD OR ALIVE,” was issued not by federal, state, or local authorities, but by a private organization, as the text at the poster's lower right side informs us: “Pinkerton's Detective Agency and Union Pacific Railroad.”

Most likely, the railroad issued the reward; the Pinkertons were probably hired by the railroad to effect the arrest, to take charge of James following his apprehension, or to pay the reward on behalf of the railroad.

Interestingly, the Jesse James poster isn't really a Jesse James poster at all, for it advertises a reward for the apprehension of either Jesse or his brother Frank: “WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE: JESSE OR FRANK JAMES.” Therefore, it's actually a Jesse-and-Frank-James poster.

To the left of Jesse's portrait, the poster identifies the reason for the reward (and the criteria for its payment): “$5,000.00 for the capture of the men who robbed the bank at NORTHFIELD, MINN.” The text to the right of Jesse's photograph identifies the suspected robbers as either “JESSE JAMES AND HIS BAND OR THE YOUNGERS,” and warns that “THESE MEN ARE DESPERATE,” meaning, of course, dangerous. (The poster, it seems, now becomes a Jesse-and-Frank-James-AND-Younger-brothers poster!)

At the bottom of the poster, the Pinkertons and the Union Pacific Railroad explain, further, that Jesse and Frank are “notorious” robbers “of trains and banks.”

Previous rewards were offered by the same party or parties, but these previous offers are superseded, the poster declares, by the current offer, which was issued on July 26, 1881 (the same year, incidentally, that Wyatt Earp and his brothers Virgil and Morgan shot it out with the Clanton-McLaury gang in Tombstone, Arizona). 

Apparently, Jesse and Frank have been “wanted” for quite some time, and the reward offered for their apprehension has increased along with their notoriety.

Finally, at the very bottom of the poster, another contact, besides the Pinkerton's Detective Agency, is identified: the sheriff of Daviess County, Missouri, the James boy's home stomping ground.

The Transcontiental Railroad: Costly Chicanery

Copyright 2019 by Gary L. Pullman

Active Member of Western Writers of America

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The cost of the transcontinental railroad was enormous. It is estimated that the American people spent between $96 million and $111.5 million to built the railroad that connected San Francisco, California, to Omaha, Nebraska.

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Some of this cost was caused by chicanery and greed, rather than personnel, equipment, and supplies. Thomas C. Durant, who was in charge of the Union Pacific Railroad's westward building of the railroad, sought to profit personally from the enterprise, often through criminal undertakings.

In December 1863, the Union Pacific broke ground in Omaha, Nebraska. The company was supposed to have started to build the westward railroad in Council Bluffs, Iowa, but Durant owned land in Omaha. By starting the railroad in Omaha, he hoped to raise the value of his own property.¹

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He and his partners controlled Credit Mobilier, a construction company Durant founded. After overcharging the federal government, he deposited the “extra” funds into the company's account.² The Congressmen who participated in Durant's scam also profited greatly.³ The Union Pacific's chief engineer quit in disgust, and, by the end of 1865, Durant had laid no more than 40 miles of track.⁴ The Union Pacific's chief engineer, Peter A. Dey, was so disgusted by Durant's dishonesty that Dey quit working for the Union Pacific Railroad. Durant replaced the departed engineer with General Grenville Dodge.⁵

Although the federal government paid the railroad company well for each mile of track it laid and gave the company the land alongside the tracks, Durant found a way to increase his own fortunes. He started to buy extra land near the pathway along which surveyors had identified for the railroad's route, hoping to profit by an increase in the value of this land, an all-but-certain eventuality.

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Durant wasn't the only person to cheat the federal government. As the Union Pacific's track neared that of the company's partner and rival, the Pacific Central Railroad, both Durant and the had of the Pacific Central refused to name a meeting point. Instead, they continued to lay track, sometimes alongside one another. Finally, President Ulysses S Grant ordered the leaders to name a meeting point; if they did not, Grant told them, he would do so. Soon afterward, the railroaders named Promontory Summit, Utah, as the place at which their respective companies' tracks should join with one another.⁶

Doing business with Brigham Young, the Mormon leader with whom Durant signed a $2 million contract to build a track grade across much of Utah, also proved needlessly expensive, and, when the Central Pacific Railroad reached Utah, Young signed a similar contract with the Big Four, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington, and Mark Hopkins. Consequently, the Mormons built two paths for the tracks, one of which was never used, just as Young knew it would not be.⁷

The greed of these railroad builders might have resulted in worse than misspent funds. Cuts through hills were expensive and required a lot of time. Therefore, necessary cuts were not made. Instead, tracks were laid around hills. Years later, these large circles were removed and replaced with straight track, which added more to the already-considerable cost of the transcontinental railroad.⁸

Hardwood was supplied from back east. Waiting for it to arrive added greater expense. Instead of ordering the hardwood, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific used pine cross ties. Pine was too soft for this purpose. As a result, they failed to support the weight of the trains. They, too, had to be removed and replaced, at an additional cost.⁹

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1The Transcontinental Railroad by Christine Zuchora-Walske

2Ibid.

3Ibid.

4Ibid.

5Ibid.

6Ibid.

7The Incredible Transcontinental Railroad by Conrad Stein.

8Ibid.

9Ibid.