The Railroad, part 11

During the winter of 1866-1867, deep snows blanketed the Sierras while freezing blizzards blasted across the Great Plains. The race between the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroads to be the first to reach their meeting point was slowed considerable. But eventually, spring did arrive on the vast plains and in the towering mountains and the labors of both railroad concerns took up speed in construction.

During this ongoing time the construction of the Kansas Pacific Railroad was under way. This railroad, instead of turning northwestward into Nebraska to connect with the main line of the Union Pacific as had been previously planed, continued straight west up the valley of the Smoky Hill River. It would then stretch along the plains towards Denver.

At last, in the fall of 1866, the tracks of the Kansas Pacific reached as far at Fort Riley. Here, Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer had settled in to assist in the organization of the Seventh Cavalry. The Seventh would be utilized to drive the Plains Indians from the path of the railway.

During this same fall William J. Palmer, treasurer and director of construction of the road, organized an excursion party. Its purpose was to raise money for the completion of the railroad into Denver. Joining this venture would be prospective financial backers, including members of the press to write up the impressive results. In an attempt to dully impress, Palmer arranged for his guests to travel in one of George Pullman's first, twenty thousand dollar, sleeping cars. Amongst the mirthful laughter of ladies and the continuing popping of champagne corks, the party advanced by rail until they finally reached the end of the line at Fort Riley.

Palmer's successfully impressed his guest and in early 1867 an energetic burst of railroad building resumed. March saw the Kansas rails reach Abilene. By June the rails extended to the north bank of Smoky Hill River, about eighty-three miles west of Fort Riley, reaching Fort Ellsworth. For an unknown reason the military station was renamed Fort Harker. Land speculators flocked in like starving vultures, divided the ground into town lots, and the town of Ellsworth, Kansas was born. Within six years Ellsworth, experiencing the sight of thousands of Longhorn cattle and hundreds of cowboys coming up the various trails from Texas, would be noted as a wild and wooly cow town. The folks of this rip-roaring "hell-town" would also come to know the twenty-one-year-old marksman who was supplying Palmer's workers with meat. For an outrageous sum of five hundred dollars a month, William F. Cody had guaranteed to supply all the buffalo meat the railroad workers could consume.

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