This Jackdaw provides a fascinating array of hands-on historical documents that makes the history of the West and coast-to-coast transportation come alive. Display the route map and full-color poster in your classroom. Students will marvel at the story of immigrant workers’ sweat and strain, and success building the railroad from the east and from the west and finally connecting the rails with a golden spike. Historian: James A. Crutchfield. The contents of this Jackdaw feature:

• Evolution of the Railroad in America
• Great Transcontinental Railroad Surveys
• Problems of Getting Started
• Building the Transcontinental Railroad

• S. W. Dexter editorial on railroad from New York to Oregon, 1832.
• Thomas Hart Benton’s letter on a transcontinental railroad, 1835.
• Page and selected text from the Pacific Railway Act, 1862.
• Full-color poster on completion of transcontinental railroad, and ad for routes available.
• Ad for inexpensive farming land along the Union Pacific RR.
• William Henry Jackson photos: “Places to See, Places to Stay Along the Transcontinental Railroad.”
• U. S. map showing the route of the transcontinental railroad.
• Proposed time schedule — published two and one half years early — for the Union Pacific Railroad, 1866.
• Poster: Advertisements for the North-Western Stage and Western Union Telegraph companies.
• Photo Collage: Railroad Life in the American West, late 1800s.