Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West, 1850-1930"An extraordinary book by a master historian! Orsi demonstrates that the Southern Pacific was not simply a predatory corporation obsessed with maximizing its profits and political power; it had a strong sense of the public good and a devotion to building stable, prosperous communities. This superb book should be required reading for all historians of the West, business, and the environment."—Donald J. Pisani, author of Water and American Government “This deep and extensive examination of the Southern Pacific's development activities in California will encourage readers to look beyond the overblown rhetoric of the railroad's many political enemies and see afresh its many positive economic accomplishments as it worked to build the Twentieth-Century West. Orsi’s presentation is as luminous as it is impressive”—Carlos Schwantes, author of Going Places: Transportation Redefines the Twentieth Century West “This brilliantly researched and beautifully written study of one of America's greatest railroads offers wonderful insights into both transportation and Western history. Orsi places the early history of the Southern Pacific Railroad in proper focus by skillfully untangling the long-standing Octopus myth. This work deserves to be called a landmark in the field.”—H. Roger Grant, author of Follow the Flag: A History of the Wabash Railroad Company "Sunset Limited illuminates not only the workings and ambitions of the Southern Pacific railroad but teaches us a great deal about the late nineteenth and early twentieth century American West as well. This is a wonderful scholarly study: remarkably thorough, ambitious, and gracefully rendered."—William Deverell, author of Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad, 1850-1910 |
Contents
Illustrations | 4 |
Southern Pacific Railroads new Pecos River High Bridge west Texas | 23 |
Southern Pacific Company building at the PanamaPacific | 41 |
Southern Pacific Leaders Land Agriculture | 45 |
W H Bulls poster for Southern Pacifics Sunset Limited train | 60 |
Land Settlement | 63 |
California Peoples Independent Party map of railroad land grants | 76 |
Cartoon depicting Southern Pacific executives as villains in the Mussel | 93 |
Congressional committee christening the TruckeeCarson | 246 |
Lake Tahoe Railroad along the Truckee River | 267 |
Scientific Agriculture | 279 |
Southern Pacific RailroadOregon Agricultural College farm demonstration | 281 |
College students from California State Normal School visit the Southern | 303 |
Rural people aboard an agricultural demonstration lecture car | 307 |
The Southern Pacifics first fast fruit train Sacramento | 323 |
Loading cantaloupes on the Southern Pacific at Fallon Nevada | 338 |
Development | 105 |
H P Gray residence and farm | 106 |
Birdsall A McAllaster | 128 |
Promoting the Far West | 130 |
Sunset magazines booth at London Exposition 1909 | 145 |
Sunset magazines photography car | 158 |
The Southern | 169 |
Central Pacific Railroad water station at Winnemucca 1868 | 171 |
Private Irrigation | 189 |
Irrigation canal portal San Joaquin Valley | 202 |
Ninefoot drop in the California Development Companys main canal | 229 |
Wilderness Preservation | 349 |
Clearing the rightofway on the Natron Cutoff southeastern Oregon | 351 |
William F Herrin with John Muir | 369 |
Putting Our Properties on the Most Conservative and Scientific | 376 |
P Huntington on firefighting duty | 388 |
Southern Pacific Companys rail system 1924 4243 | 401 |
epilogue | 406 |
Geography of railroad land grant Salton Sink region southeastern California | 585 |
| 589 | |
Other editions - View all
Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the ... Richard J. Orsi No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
acres agricultural Angeles April Arizona B. A. McAllaster Big Four Cali California Development Company Central Pacific Railroad Central Pacific’s Charles Crocker Collis company’s County Crocker crops decades December demonstration trains E. H. Harriman early Eberlein economic ern Pacific farm farmers February federal File forest fornia Harriman Lines Herrin History Huntington Imperial Valley Irrigation District January Lake Tahoe land agent Land Department land grant Land Office land sales leaders Mills Mills’s Muir Mussel Slough Nevada November officials Oregon organizations Pacific Fruit Express Pacific Improvement Company pany particularly programs promotional rail railroad land railway Reclamation Service region River road Sacramento Record-Union San Francisco San Joaquin Valley sell settlers Sierra Southern Pacific Bulletin Southern Pacific Company Southern Pacific land Southern Pacific Railroad Southern Pacific’s SP-L squatters state’s Texas tion town traffic Truckee Truckee-Carson Project Union Pacific water rights West western William H Yosemite Zumwalt