Railroads of Northern Utah and Southern Idaho

Northern Utah and Southern Idaho have as rich a history and railroading has anywhere. It begins earlier than most other western states. The nation’s first transcontinental railroad came into Utah in the spring of 1869, from the east and from the west. The Central Pacific from Sacramento and the Union Pacific from Omaha joined tracks at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869. The transcontinental line ran west from Promontory Summit, around the north end of Great Salt Lake and then across the desert of Box Elder County into Nevada, up over the great wall of the Sierra Nevada mountains to Sacramento California, and on to the Pacific coast. Thirty years later, after the level of Great Salt Lake had dropped, a new line was built from Ogden, across the lake, to the Nevada state line. It was one of the great engineering feats of the twentieth century. Soon after the Golden Spike was driven, on May 10, 1869, Brigham Young built the Utah Central railroad connecting Salt Lake City with the transcontinental railroad at Ogden. Then, he built the Utah Northern Railroad north from Ogden and into Cache Valley, then northward from Logan. The Union Pacific purchased the railroad, renamed it the Utah & Northern, ran it north to Preston, through Marsh Valley, to the new city of Pocatello, thence north into Oregon and Montana. The Union Pacific built a new line through the canyon of Bear River at the north end of Wellsville Moutain, then north into Marsh Valley. The tracks of that line ran through the small farming community of Swan Valley. From that beginning, other railroad lines extended through northern Utah and southern Idaho, including the Utah Idaho Northern, a freight and commuter line operating on electricity, which ran from Ogden to Preston, only ceasing operation in 1947. The history of railroads in northern Utah and southern Idaho began in the earliest days of railroading in the American West. It is a varied and fascinating history. That history is told in the important new book Railroads of Northern Utah and Southern Idaho, by Frederick M. Huchel.