Adventure 051, Site 091 – Transcontinental Railroad, Rocklin

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 051, Site 091 – Transcontinental Railroad, Rocklin

California Landmark Number: 780-2

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 27, 2012

Location:

Latitude: 38° 47.501′ N

Longitude: 121° 14.273′ W

Address: 5190 Front St, Rocklin CA 95677

Description:

We found the general area where this marker was, but had a hard time finding it. There was a little park-like place close to a church. But the marker was not there. A lady water plants did not know where the marker was. We then went across the trackers to the Amtrak station to ask—no one was there. When we came out of the station, Thing Two let out a cry and found the marker!

Thing One's thought is that things have gone a long way. Rocklin was the end of the railroad, because it was close to the steep grade up to Auburn. It later got moved to Roseville and then to Sacramento. Now Rocklin as an unmanned Amtrak station.

NO. 780 FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD - Here, on January 8, 1863, Governor Leland Stanford turned the first spade of earth to begin construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. After more than six years of labor, crews of the Central Pacific Railroad from the west and the Union Pacific Railroad from the east met at Promontory, Utah where, on May 10, 1869, Stanford drove the gold spike signifying completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The Central Pacific Railroad, forerunner of the Southern Pacific Company, was planned by Theodore D. Judah and constructed largely through the efforts of the 'Big Four'-Sacramento businessmen Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins.
Location: Old Sacramento State Historic Park, Sacramento, California State Railroad Museum, rear lounge area



NO. 780-1 FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD-ROSEVILLE - Central Pacific graders arrived at Junction on November 23, 1863, and when track reached there on April 25, 1864, trains began making the 18-mile run to and from Sacramento daily. The new line crossed a line reaching northward from Folsom that the California Central had begun in 1858 and abandoned in 1868. Junction, now called Roseville, became a major railroad distribution center.
Location: Old Town Roseville, S.E. corner of Church St & Washington Blvd, Roseville

NO. 780-2 FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD-ROCKLIN - Central Pacific reached Rocklin, 22 miles from its Sacramento terminus, in May 1864, when the railroad established a major locomotive terminal here. Trains moving over the Sierra were generally cut in two sections at this point in order to ascend the grade. The first CP freight movement was three carloads of Rocklin granite pulled by the engine Governor Stanford. The terminal was moved to Roseville April 18, 1908.
Location: SE corner of Rocklin Rd and First St, Rocklin

NO. 780-3 FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD-NEWCASTLE - Regular freight and passenger trains began operating over the first 31 miles of Central Pacific's line to Newcastle on June 10, 1864, when political opposition and lack of money stopped further construction during that mild winter. Construction was resumed in April 1865. At this point, stagecoaches transferred passengers from the Dutch Flat Wagon Road.
Location: SW corner of Main and Page Sts, Newcastle

NO. 780-4 FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD-AUBURN - After an 11-month delay due to political opposition and lack of money, Central Pacific tracks reached Auburn May 13, 1865, and regular service began. Government loans became available when the railroad completed its first 40 miles, four miles east of here. With the new funds, Central Pacific augmented its forces with the first Chinese laborers, and work began again in earnest.
Location: 639 Lincoln Way, Auburn

NO. 780-5 FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD-COLFAX - Central Pacific rails reached Illinois-town on September 1, 1865, and train service began four days later. Renamed by Governor Stanford in honor of Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives and later Ulysses S. Grant's Vice President, the town was for ten months a vital construction supply depot and junction point for stage lines. The real assault on the Sierra began here.
Location: Grass Valley Street and Railroad Tracks in Railroad Park, Colfax

NO. 780-8 FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD-WESTERN BASE OF THE SIERRA NEVADA - On January 12, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln decreed that the western base of the Sierra Nevada began where the Central Pacific Railroad crossed Arcade Creek. The hardships of railroad construction through mountains resulted in increased government subsidies that gave the company impetus to finish the transcontinental railroad.
Location: Haggin Oaks Municipal Golf Course, N side of clubhouse, 3645 Fulton Ave, Sacramento



References:

• Noehill
  
• HMDB.org
  

Overall Landmark References:

• David Schmitt's California State Historical Landmark (Schmitt)
  
• Wikipedia: California's National Landmarks (WCNL)
  
• State of California's California Historical Landmarks (CHL)
  
• Wikipedia: California State Landmarks (WCSL)
  
• State of California Historical Resources (CHR)
  
• Noehill (NOE)
  
• Historical Marker Database (HMDB)