Sunset Limited

by Orsi, Richard J.

• ISBN13: 9780520200197
• ISBN10: 0520200195
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-05-01
• 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 Limitedexplores 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 Limitedopens 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, Hayward.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xxi
PART I Foundations
``These Mountains Look Too Ugly and I See Too Much Work Ahead'': Building the Southern Pacific Company, 1850--1930	3	(42)
Men of Vision: Southern Pacific Leaders, Land, Agriculture, and the Development of California and the West	45	(20)
PART II 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	65	(27)
The Mussel Slough Affair	92	(13)
A Land of ``Well-tilled Little Farms'': Land-Grant Development	105	(25)
Promoting the Far West	130	(39)
PART III Water
``The Satisfactory Supply Is Yet Undiscovered'': The Southern Pacific as a Pioneer Water Developer	169	(20)
``A Great Encouragement for Others'': Private Irrigation	189	(16)
``This Splendid Country Is to Be Reclaimed'': Public Irrigation	205	(33)
``The Government Is Hard to Deal With'': Federal Reclamation	238	(41)
PART IV Agriculture
``Evangel Train'': Scientific Agriculture	279	(38)
``The Damndest Railroading You Ever Heard Of'': Marketing the Produce of Western Farms	317	(32)
PART V Conservation
``Shall This Destruction Proceed?'': Wilderness Preservation	349	(27)
``Putting Our Properties on the Most Conservative and Scientific Basis'': Resource Conservation	376	(30)
Epilogue	406	(3)
A Note on Manuscript Sources	409	(2)
Notes	411	(178)
Index	589