Mormon Graders

As the Union Pacific and Central Pacific raced to complete the first transcontinental railroad, both railroads contracted with President Brigham Young for Mormon laborers to prepare the railroad grade (building road base, cutting, filling, tunneling and bridge building). This was so others could finalize the grade and lay the track. Mormon contractors worked between Wells, Nevada to the west, and the Wyoming-Utah border to the east. Mormon workers, along with Chinese, Irish, Civil War veterans, and others, contributed to the wedding of the rails at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869. The railroad spurred development across Utah and the West, and contributed to Utah’s enduring status as the “Crossroads of the West.”

Courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society
Mormon railroad workers, Union Pacific Railroad, Weber Canyon, Andrew J. Russell, photographer