, a Wyandotte high chief (now within Kansas City, Kansas).
Robert Benecke, 1873. The progenitor of the Kansas Pacific was organized in 1855 as the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railroad (LP&W).
Fort Leavenworth was the first permanent U.S. settlement in Kansas. Also organized in 1855 on the east boundary of
Fort Riley,
Pawnee was very briefly the original territorial capital of Kansas before being demolished by order of Secretary of War
Jefferson Davis the same year. The construction of the line was motivated in part by the desire of the U.S. government to extend transportation routes into the
Kansas Territory (1854–1861), which due to the
Kansas–Nebraska Act the previous year became the center violence between
Abolitionist and Pro-Slavery states, in what was called
Bleeding Kansas (1854–1859) and the prelude to Kansas Statehood (1861) and the subsequent
American Civil War (1861–1866). Moreover, major river ports had been established on either side of
Kaw Point; one was the Pro-Slavery
Westport, MO, and the other was
Wyandotte City founded in 1844 by the
Sandusky Wyandot who had purchased 36 square miles of land from the Delaware Indians above the mouth of the Kansas River. These riverports served a number of transcontinental wagon trails, notably, the
Santa Fe Trail, the
Oregon Trail, and the
Smoky Hill Trail. However, as was the case with a number of other proposed territory railroads organized at the time, no construction occurred before the Civil War. In 1963,
John C. Frémont and
Samuel Hallett acquired control of LP&W stock and reorganized it as the Union Pacific Eastern Division (UPED). The UPED was authorized by the
United States Congress as part of the
Pacific Railway Act, in order to create a second southerly branch of the
transcontinental railroad, alongside the
Union Pacific. With
Leavenwortt businesses failing to support the railroad, Hallett located the railhead of the UPED at the Wyandotte City riverport. In 1864, freight and passenger service was established between Wyandotte City and
Lawrence. In March 1869, an Act of the
United States Congress change the name to Kansas Pacific Railway. As in the case with the Union Pacific, the Pacific Railway Act authorized large land grants to the
railroad along its mainline. Such grants were to be distributed to
homesteaders who would populate the lands near the railroad, forming new towns and providing the economic activity needed to support the railroad itself. The original intent was to build a railroad from the river port of Wyandotte City (now
Kansas City), west to Fort Riley, then up the
Republican River northwest to join the Union Pacific main line at
Fort Kearny in
Nebraska. This course avoided the Cheyenne main buffalo hunting grounds. The company began construction on its main line westward from Kansas City in September 1863. In 1864, the first of the line to
Lawrence was in operation. In the fall of 1866, the line had reached
Junction City, which became the end of the first division of the railroad and where a roundhouse was constructed. However, as the tracks reached Junction City, it became clear that the
Union Pacific Railroad would win the race to Fort Kearny and the
100th meridian. Moreover, citizens in
Denver in the
Colorado Territory, eager to be connected to the national network, lobbied furiously to extend the rail lines to their city. For these reasons the Kansas Pacific surveyed a new course to Denver along the
Smoky Hill Trail. between Cheyenne
Dog Soldiers and the 10th Cavalry (
Buffalo Soldiers) (C. Taylor, 1911) Thus, changing course in 1867, the construction progressed through
Salina to
Fort Hays. Considering this an act of trespass, Cheyenne
Dog Soldiers began raiding construction camps, damaging equipment, and stealing horses and mules. On August 1st, a raid on Campbell's grading camp killed 7 workers, prompting a response by the
10th Cavalry Regiment. The ensuing August 2nd
Battle of the Saline River was the first action of the
Buffalo Soldiers. The escalation of raids on survey parties and construction camps drove all workers into
Rome, the short-lived townsite founded by
William Cody. Work was halted west of
Hays City for two years as the region witnessed
Battle of Beaver Creek,
Battle of the Washita River,
Battle of Beecher Island, and
Battle of Summit Springs. It was during this time that William Cody became famous as a buffalo hunter for the railroad and as a scout for the U.S. Army, winning the name "Buffalo Bill". It was also at this time that famous Civil War photographer
Alexander Gardner was
contracted by the railroad to photograph the line for promotional purposes. With the hostilities delaying his journey, he made several photographs of the end of track, including his famous
Westward The Course of Empire Takes Its Way. Taken days before the signing of the
Medicine Lodge Treaty (wherein the tribes had consented to permit the railroad) the image shows a construction party at end-of-track, which was then only a couple miles west of Hays City. By the time of these photographs (mid/late-October, 1867) Rome had been largely abandoned in favor of the permanent settlement of Hays City. Included in several pictures of this location around Hays City is his escort detachment from the
38th Infantry Regiment. With winter approaching, the Indians retired to winter camps, enabling Gardener was able to continue his journey to photograph the Southwest territories. In 1868, the U.S. Congress enacted a law that was signed by President
Andrew Johnson to build a second-phase extension of the line to the
Rocky Mountains, with the intention of continuing past Denver through the
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, to compete with the Union Pacific main line. No funds were granted for the construction, however, a situation made more dire by the general collapse in railroad investments following the end of the
American Civil War. With the end of combat in 1869, construction continued from Hays City to
Sheridan, Kansas. Then, with the backing of German investors, construction continued on into Colorado in October 1869. By March 1870, the westward line had reached
Kit Carson, Colorado, and the company began to build eastward from Denver. On August 15, 1870, the two KP branches met on the
Colorado Eastern Plains at
Comanche Crossing, which was renamed
Strasburg in honor of an engineer of the Kansas Pacific. The arrival of the first trains to Denver in August was two months after the completion in June 1870 of the
Denver Pacific Railway main line linking Denver with the Union Pacific at
Cheyenne in the
Wyoming Territory. The Kansas Pacific and Denver Pacific lines intersected at the Denver "Jersey Junction", approximately three miles north of downtown. The Strasburg "joining of the rails" of the Kansas Pacific on August 15, 1870, actually marked the completion of a true coast-to-coast railway network in the United States. The
golden spike event in
Utah the previous year had marked the linking of the Union Pacific with the
Central Pacific Railroad, but until 1872, passengers were required to disembark between
Council Bluffs, Iowa, and
Omaha, Nebraska, to cross the
Missouri River by boat. In 1873, another famous Civil War photographer,
Robert Benecke published his
contracted promotional photographs of the railroad. In 1874, Union Pacific investor
Jay Gould gained effective control of the Kansas Pacific. In 1880, the Kansas Pacific and the Denver Pacific were consolidated at Gould's direction into the Union Pacific. The company's intention to extend the old Kansas Pacific mainline through the Rockies was strengthened by renewed competition from its archrival, the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. In the early 1880s, the Union Pacific sent surveyors on several expeditions up the
Platte Canyon and the
Poudre Canyon. When the Burlington withdrew its plans for its own transcontinental line, however, the Union Pacific lost interest in extending a line west from Denver. It was not until 1934, with the completion of the Dotsero Cutoff, connecting the mainline of the
Denver and Salt Lake Railroad with the
Denver and Rio Grande Western mainline, that the standard gauge rail network west from Denver would cross the Rockies and reach
Salt Lake City. In 1885, the railroad went before the Supreme Court in
Kansas Pacific R. Co. v. Dunmeyer in a dispute over land titles. ==Representation in fiction==