The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the

first transcontinental railroad North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the " Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail netwo ...

was being constructed by the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific, it tried and failed to join the transcontinental ranks. It was originally the "Union Pacific, Eastern Division", although it was completely independent. The Pennsylvania Railroad, working with Missouri financiers, designed it as a feeder line to the transcontinental system. The owners lobbied heavily in Washington for money to build a railroad from Kansas City to Colorado, and then to California. It failed to get funding to go west of Colorado. It operated many of the first long-distance lines in the state of Kansas in the 1870s, extending the national railway network westward across that state and into Colorado. Its main line furnished a principal transportation route that opened up settlement of the central

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

, and its link from

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

to Denver provided the last link in the coast-to-coast railway network in 1870. The railroad was consolidated with the Union Pacific in 1880, and its mainline continues to be an integral part of the Union Pacific network today.William R. Petrowski, "The Kansas Pacific Railroad in the Southwest." ''Arizona and the West'' (1969): 129-146.

History

The Kansas Pacific began in 1855 as the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railroad, and was later reorganized in 1863 as the Union Pacific Eastern Division. The UP Eastern was authorized by the United States Congress as part of the

Pacific Railway Act The Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 were a series of acts of Congress that promoted the construction of a "transcontinental railroad" (the Pacific Railroad) in the United States through authorizing the issuance of government bonds and the grants of l ...

, in order to create a second southerly branch of the transcontinental railroad, alongside the Union Pacific. The name "Kansas Pacific" was not adopted until 1869. The original intent of the railroad was to build a line west from

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of the ...

across Kansas to Fort Riley, then north to join the Union Pacific main line at Fort Kearny in Nebraska. The construction of the line was motivated in part by the desire of the U.S. government to extend transportation routes into Kansas, which had been the scene of ongoing conflict between future Union and Confederate sympathizers even prior to the start of the American Civil War (1861-1865). ''See Bleeding Kansas''. The company began construction on its main line westward from Kansas City in September 1863. In 1864, the first 40 miles (64 km) 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. In 1867 the line reached to Salina. In March 1869, the name was changed by Act of the United States Congress to the Kansas Pacific. 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 The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of th ...

who would populate the lands near the railroad, forming new towns and providing the economic activity needed to support the railroad itself. During the construction, William F. "

Buffalo Bill William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, Bison hunting, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa, Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but ...

" Cody was employed to shoot buffalo to provide meat for the track laying crews. Although the railroad had intended originally to build only as far west as Fort Riley, citizens in Denver in the Colorado Territory, eager to be connected to national network, lobbied furiously to extend the Union Pacific lines to reach their city. 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 backing of German investors, the Kansas Pacific (KP) began construction on the Colorado extension in October 1869. By March 1870, the westward line had reached

Kit Carson, Colorado Kit Carson is a Statutory Town in Cheyenne County, Colorado, United States. The population was 233 at the 2010 United States Census. History The town was named in honor of frontiersman Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson. Geography Kit Carson ...

, 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 ''Comanche Crossing'' is a 1968 Western film directed by Larry Buchanan. Buchanan worked on the film in 1967–68 with Tony Huston. It was shot in Big Bend Country near the US-Mexican border, with Cynthia Hull as a Native American and Huston as ...

, 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 The Denver Pacific Railway was a historic railroad that operated in the western United States during the late 19th century. Formed in 1867 in the Colorado Territory, the company operated lines in Colorado and present-day southeastern Wyoming in t ...

mainline linking Denver with the Union Pacific at Cheyenne in the Nebraska 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 true completion of a 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 The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by Pacific Railroad Acts, U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in N ...

, but until 1872, passengers on the Union Pacific were required to disembark between

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha–Council Bluffs ...

and Omaha, Nebraska to cross the Missouri River by boat. In 1874, Union Pacific investor Jay Gould gained effective control of the Kansas Pacific. In 1880, at Gould's direction, the railroad was consolidated with Union Pacific and the Denver Pacific, with the new railroad taking the Union Pacific name. The new company's intention to extend the old Kansas Pacific mainline through the Rockies was strengthened by renewed competition by 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 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 ''Kansas Pacific R. Co. v. Dunmeyer'', 113 U.S. 629 (1885), was a writ of error to the Supreme Court of Kansas. The action was brought in that court on a covenant of warranty of title to two pieces of land in a deed of conveyance made by the Kans ...

'' in a dispute over land titles.

Representation in fiction

The struggle to build the railway against the backdrop of the American Civil War was depicted in the 1953 western movie ''

Kansas Pacific The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the first transcontin ...

'', starring Sterling Hayden and Eve Miller. In

Superman (1978 film) ''Superman'' (stylized as ''Superman: The Movie'') is a 1978 superhero film based on the character by DC Comics. An international co-production between the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Panama and the United States, it was supervised by Alexand ...

, Lois Lane as a girl is shown riding with her parents on a Kansas Pacific passenger train through

Smallville, Kansas Smallville is a fictional town in American comic books published by DC Comics. The childhood hometown of Superman, Smallville was first named in ''Superboy'' #2 (May 1949). The town is the setting of many ''Superboy'' comics where Superboy defen ...

, boyhood home of

Clark Kent Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publish ...

References

External links

John H. McDowell Papers, 1853-1884
McDowell was part owner of the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railroad Company and this collection documents the business of the railroad while he was associated with it. .44 cubic feet (processed). Finding aid compiled by Susan Wheatley
Eastern Kentucky University Special Collections and Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kansas Pacific Railway Defunct Colorado railroads Defunct Kansas railroads Predecessors of the Union Pacific Railroad Rail lines receiving land grants Railway companies established in 1869 Railway companies disestablished in 1880 Defunct Missouri railroads 1869 establishments in Kansas

History

Representation in fiction

See also

References

Further reading

Primary sources

External links