Union Pacific Railroad

The Union Pacific Railroad is the largest railroad network in the United States. The railroad was incorporated on 1 July 1862 in the wake of the Pacific Railroad Act.

From the guide to the Union Pacific Railroad vouchers, 1899, (J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)

At the turn of the century Montana copper-king and Senator William A. Clark incorporated the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad intending to connect the Los Angeles port of San Pedro, California with Salt Lake City, Utah. The Oregon Short Line, a subsidiary of E.H. Harriman's Union Pacific Railroad, which already owned a right-of-way, also intended to develop a Salt Lake-Los Angeles route. After frantic filing and counter-filing of survey maps and an aggressive track-laying race through the Meadow Valley Wash, the two railroads resolved their conflict in 1903 with an agreement on joint ownership of the Salt Lake Route by Clark and Harriman. The tracks reached the site of Las Vegas, Nevada, from Utah in October 1904 and from California in January 1905. Las Vegas was a division point on the railroad; the town site was surveyed and lots auctioned on May 15, 1905. The railroad established a subsidiary company, the Las Vegas Land and Water Company to administer the town site and other property, and its water. The railroad operated under the name of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad until 1921 when Clark sold his interest to the Union Pacific Railroad and retired.

From the description of Union Pacific Railroad Collection. 1902-1969. (University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries). WorldCat record id: 714657752