Sunset Limited

by Orsi, Richard J.

• ISBN13: 9780520251649
• ISBN10: 0520251644
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-02-05
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

The only major U.S. railroad to be operated by westerners and the only railroad built from west to east, the Southern Pacific acquired a unique history and character. It also acquired a reputation, especially in California, as a railroad that people loved to hate. This magisterial history tells the full story of the Southern Pacific for the first time, shattering myths about the company that have prevailed to this day. A landmark account, "Sunset Limited "explores the railroad's development and influence--especially as it affected land settlement, agriculture, water policy, and the environment--and offers a new perspective on the tremendous, often surprising, role the company played in shaping the American West. Based on his unprecedented and extensive research into the company's historical archives, Richard Orsi finds that, contrary to conventional understanding, the Southern Pacific Company identified its corporate well-being with population growth and social and economic development in the railroad's hinterland. As he traces the complex and shifting intersections between corporate and public interest, Orsi documents the railroad's little-known promotion of land distribution, small-scale farming, scientific agriculture, and less wasteful environmental practices and policies--including water conservation and wilderness and recreational parklands preservation. Meticulously researched, lucidly written, and judiciously balanced, "Sunset Limited "opens a new window onto the American West in a crucial phase of its development and will forever change our perceptions of one of the largest and most important western corporations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Author Biography

Richard Orsi is Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, East Bay

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xxi
Foundations
"These Mountains Look Too Ugly and I See Too Much Work Ahead": Building the Southern Pacific Company, 1850-1930	p. 3
Men of Vision: Southern Pacific Leaders, Land, Agriculture, and the Development of California and the West	p. 45
Land Settlement
"Stand on the Rights of the Company and Make a Square Fight of It": Land-Grant Myths, Conflicts with the Government, and Squatterism	p. 65
The Mussel Slough Affair	p. 92
A Land of "Well-tilled Little Farms": Land-Grant Development	p. 105
Promoting the Far West	p. 130
Water
"The Satisfactory Supply Is Yet Undiscovered": The Southern Pacific as a Pioneer Water Developer	p. 169
"A Great Encouragement for Others": Private Irrigation	p. 189
"This Splendid Country Is to Be Reclaimed": Public Irrigation	p. 205
"The Government Is Hard to Deal With": Federal Reclamation	p. 238
Agriculture
"Evangel Train": Scientific Agriculture	p. 279
"The Damndest Railroading You Ever Heard Of": Marketing the Produce of Western Farms	p. 317
Conservation
"Shall This Destruction Proceed?": Wilderness Preservation	p. 349
"Putting Our Properties on the Most Conservative and Scientific Basis": Resource Conservation	p. 376
Epilogue	p. 406
A Note on Manuscript Sources	p. 409
Notes	p. 411
Index	p. 589
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