Union Pacific Railroad Collection

Union Pacific Railroad Collection

Guide to the Union Pacific Railroad Collection This finding aid was created by Melise Leech and Jimmy Chang. This copy was published on February 18, 2020. Persistent URL for this finding aid: https://n2t.net/ark:/62930/f1pp7v © 2020 The Regents of the University of Nevada. All rights reserved. University of Nevada, Las Vegas. University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives. Box 457010 4505 S. Maryland Parkway Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-7010 [email protected] Guide to the Union Pacific Railroad Collection Table of Contents Summary Information ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Organizational History .................................................................................................................................... 4 Scope and Contents Note ................................................................................................................................ 5 Arrangement Note ........................................................................................................................................... 6 Administrative Information ............................................................................................................................. 7 Related Materials ............................................................................................................................................. 7 Names and Subjects ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Collection Inventory ........................................................................................................................................ 8 J. Ross Clark, San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad .................................................................... 8 Las Vegas Land & Water Company (LVL&W) ........................................................................................ 10 Walter Bracken and the Las Vegas, Nevada Office ............................................................................... 10 General Manager, Manager of Properties, and Manager of Industrial Development in Los Angeles, California .................................................................................................................................................. 56 Correspondence of Las Vegas Agents ................................................................................................... 116 Receipt Books ........................................................................................................................................ 117 Union Pacific Railroad Company ............................................................................................................ 117 Photographs, Schedules, and Instruction Books .................................................................................... 118 Maps, Drawings, and Plans ................................................................................................................... 118 United States Harbor Reports ................................................................................................................... 120 Law Department ....................................................................................................................................... 121 Chief Engineer and Engineering Files ..................................................................................................... 173 Industrial Development ............................................................................................................................. 192 Real Estate ................................................................................................................................................ 202 Land and Tax ............................................................................................................................................ 203 Publications, Field Books, File Indexes, and Code Books ...................................................................... 280 National War Industries Projects .............................................................................................................. 281 Bound Legal Briefs ................................................................................................................................... 281 Blueprints and Drawings .......................................................................................................................... 282 Union Pacific Railroad Collection Index ................................................................................................. 289 - Page 2 - Guide to the Union Pacific Railroad Collection Summary Information Repository: University of Nevada, Las Vegas. University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives. Creator: Union Pacific Railroad Company Title: Union Pacific Railroad Collection ID: MS-00397 Date [inclusive]: 1828-1995 Physical Description: 190.38 Cubic Feet (163 boxes, 55 flat files, 61 unboxed volumes) Physical Description: 196.53 Linear Feet Language of the English Material: Abstract: The Union Pacific Railroad Collection (1828-1986) is comprised of the original corporate records of the Union Pacific Railroad's operations in Southern Nevada, Utah, and Southern California, particularly focusing on Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The collection documents the purchase of Stewart ranch and the construction of the original depot and town which became modern Las Vegas. The collection also contains the records of the Las Vegas Land & Water Company (LVL&W), a subsidiary of the railroad formed in 1905 to handle the railroad's land transactions. The collection contains office files, correspondence, reports, leases, various legal, governmental and financial document, the collection contains large and small format maps, architectural and engineering drawings, published technical reports, railroad operational manuals, bound legal briefs, ledgers, and payroll and receipt books. The collection also includes the personal files of Walter Bracken, the Union Pacific's special representative in Nevada and vice president of the Las Vegas Land and Water Company, and a paper index of the collection materials. Preferred Citation Union Pacific Railroad Collection, 1828-1986. MS-00397. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada. ^ Return to Table of Contents - Page 3- Guide to the Union Pacific Railroad Collection Organizational History At the turn of the century, Montana copper-king and Senator William A. Clark incorporated the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad intending to connect the Los Angeles port of San Pedro, California with Salt Lake City, Utah. The Oregon Short Line, a subsidiary of E.H. Harriman's Union Pacific Railroad, which already owned a right-of-way, also intended to develop a Salt Lake-Los Angeles route. After frantic filing and counter-filing of survey maps and an aggressive track-laying race through the Meadow Valley Wash, the two railroads resolved their conflict in 1903 with an agreement on joint ownership of the Salt Lake- Los Angeles Route by Clark and Harriman. The tracks reached the site of Las Vegas, Nevada from Utah in October 1904 and from California in January 1905. Las Vegas was a division point on the railroad; the townsite was surveyed and lots auctioned on May 15, 1905. The railroad established a subsidiary company, the Las Vegas Land & Water Company (LVL&W) to administer the town site and other property, and its water. The railroad operated under the name of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad until 1921 when Clark sold his interest to the Union Pacific Railroad and retired. The Salt Lake Route, as it was known, had always been controlled by the Union Pacific, despite Clark's being a titular partner, and his brother J. Ross being a 2nd Vice President, but after 1921 it was entirely the Union Pacific, one part of the nation's largest rail system, with its headquarters in Omaha and offices in Los Angeles. The railroad was the biggest business, landowner, and employer in Las Vegas for many years. It controlled the city's water system as well as tracts of industrial, commercial, and residential developments which it leased, sold, serviced, and maintained. The railroad was inextricably bound and engaged in all the business, political, and civic issues which faced the growing city of Las Vegas, and its files document almost all aspects of life in the city such as water shortages, tourism and civic promotion, and strikes and labor unrest. Besides constructing tracks, spurs, buildings, and facilities for its own operations in Las Vegas and other stations along its route, Union Pacific also served a growing number of federal installations. As a national transportation industry, it was subject to federal bureaucratic oversight, which was intensified during wars. For example, during World War II, the Engineering Department maintained a whole file series on "War Conditions." As the railroad expanded and promoted tourism as an important part of its passenger business, it built facilities in neighboring National Parks including the Lodges at Zion, Bryce, and the Grand canyons. The national railroads, as intricately complex and far-flung industrial and business organizations, were the exemplars of later 19th and 20th century corporate

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