Part 4-Transcontinental Railroad-Across the Desert: Legends of the Old West
- Matthew Kerns
- Jun 11, 2025
- 2 min read
Episode 4 of 6 in a series on The Transcontinental Railroad I wrote for Legends of the Old West.
In episode 4, “Across the Desert” the Central Pacific finally bursts free of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and accelerates across the wide, unforgiving deserts of Nevada and Utah. What had once been an excruciating crawl through granite and snow becomes a full-speed race across alkaline flats and sun-scorched valleys. With the Summit Tunnel behind them, Charles Crocker and James Strobridge turn their labor force—anchored by tireless Chinese crews—into a mobile logistical machine, laying track at unprecedented speeds and founding towns like Reno, Elko, and Carlin as they go.
But the desert brings its own brutal challenges. Water is tainted or absent. Dust blinds workers and corrodes machines. The Humboldt Sink—an alkali-crusted wasteland where the river simply vanishes—pushes men and machines to the brink. Yet the Central Pacific presses forward, fueled by tea, grit, and the ever-looming competition from the Union Pacific. Each mile closer to Utah raises the stakes: the two companies still haven’t agreed on where they’ll meet, and time is running out.
As negotiations swirl in Congress and rival executives stake claims from Sacramento to Washington, Crocker eyes a different kind of victory. Not just to finish the race—but to finish with flair. Quietly, he and Strobridge begin planning a secret attempt to break the tracklaying record, staging materials and training crews with military precision. Their goal? To prove that the Central Pacific—not the more celebrated Union Pacific—can lay more iron, faster, and better than anyone.
The result is one of the most astonishing engineering feats in American history: Ten Mile Day. It’s not just a triumph of muscle and timing—it’s a declaration. In a single breathless push, hundreds of laborers—Irish and Chinese, side by side—lay over 25,000 ties, 3,500 rails, and 55,000 spikes. They don't just reach Promontory Summit. They arrive with momentum, unity, and unmatched determination. The end of the line is near—but this episode proves the Central Pacific will meet it on their own terms. 🎧 Listen now to "Across the Desert" on your favorite podcast platform.
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