The Sioux City and Pacific Railroad was a railroad in the U.S. states of Iowa and Nebraska. Built as a connection from Sioux City, Iowa to the Union Pacific Railroad at Fremont, Nebraska, it became part of the Chicago and North Western Railway system in the 1880s, and is now a main line of the Union Pacific (UP). The east-west portion from Fremont to Missouri Valley, Iowa, is the Blair Subdivision, carrying mainly westbound UP trains (most eastbounds use the Omaha Subdivision), and the line from California Junction, Iowa north to Sioux City is the Sioux City Subdivision. [1]
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders. Four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names.
Iowa is a state in the Midwestern United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states; Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the east, Missouri to the south, Nebraska to the west, South Dakota to the northwest and Minnesota to the north.
Nebraska is a state that lies in both the Great Plains and the Midwestern United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwest; and Wyoming to the west. It is the only triply landlocked U.S. state.
The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 defined a network of branches that would begin at the Missouri River and join the main line of the Union Pacific Railroad in or near Nebraska. The UP was required to build the branch from Sioux City, [2] but an 1864 amendment released the UP from this obligation, allowing any railroad arriving at Sioux City from the east, or any newly incorporated railroad, to construct the line and gain the associated land grants. [3] The Sioux City and Pacific Railroad was organized for this purpose in August 1864, and soon came under common ownership with the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, a land-grant company, leased by the Chicago and North Western Railway, that completed its road across Iowa to Council Bluffs in April 1867. To build the portion in Nebraska, the Northern Nebraska Air Line Railroad was incorporated in June 1867 and merged into the Sioux City and Pacific in September 1868. [4] [5]
The Missouri River is the longest river in North America. Rising in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for 2,341 miles (3,767 km) before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Missouri. The river takes drainage from a sparsely populated, semi-arid watershed of more than half a million square miles (1,300,000 km2), which includes parts of ten U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. When combined with the lower Mississippi River, it forms the world's fourth longest river system.
Union Pacific Railroad is a freight hauling railroad that operates 8,500 locomotives over 32,100 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago and New Orleans. The Union Pacific Railroad system is the second largest in the United States after the BNSF Railway and is one of the world's largest transportation companies. The Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of the Union Pacific Corporation ; both are headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.
A land grant is a grant of land – held by a government to hold until the land it granted to a person. The United States historically gave out numerous land grants to people desiring farmland. The American Industrial Revolution was guided by many supportive acts of legislatures promoting commerce or transportation infrastructure development by private companies, such as the Cumberland Road turnpike, the Lehigh Canal, the Schuylkill Canal, and the many railroads that tied the young United States together.
In August 1867 the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River opened a branch from Missouri Valley Junction west to California Junction (sold to the Sioux City and Pacific in July 1871), where the Sioux City and Pacific, funded by the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River, began constructing its line north through the Missouri River Valley, reaching Sioux City in February 1868. The line from California Junction west to Fremont, Nebraska was completed in early 1869, initially crossing the Missouri River via a car ferry. From 1870 until July 1884, the Sioux City and Pacific operated the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad, which continued northwest from Fremont into northwestern Nebraska. (The Illinois Central Railroad subsidiary Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad opened the first eastern connection to Sioux City in October 1870. [6] ) The Blair Bridge opened in late 1883, replacing the car ferry across the Missouri River. In 1884, the Chicago and North Western acquired control of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River and the connecting Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska Railroad, which had jointly purchased the Sioux City and Pacific in 1880. Operations remained separate until August 1901, when the C&NW leased and soon merged the company into itself. (During the previous month, the Sioux City and Pacific had bought the incomplete roadbed of the Moville Extension Railway, which the C&NW completed that year, branching off the main line at Sergeant Bluff and connecting to an existing C&NW line at Moville.) [4] [5]
California Junction is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Harrison County, Iowa, United States. It lies just east of the junction between the east-west and north-south lines of the former Sioux City and Pacific Railroad. In the 2010 census it had a population of 85 inhabitants and a population density of 184.38 people per square mile (71.19/km²).
The Missouri River Valley outlines the journey of the Missouri River from its headwaters where the Madison, Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers flow together in Montana to its confluence with the Mississippi River in the State of Missouri. At 2,300 miles (3,700 km) long the valley drains one-sixth of the United States, and is the longest river valley on the North American continent. The valley in the Missouri River basin includes river bottoms and floodplains.
Fremont is a city in Dodge County in the eastern portion of the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. The population was 26,397 at the 2010 census. Fremont is the county seat and the home of Midland University.
The line became more important in the 1960s, when the point where the UP and C&NW interchanged transcontinental traffic was moved from Council Bluffs to Fremont, allowing for a shorter route via Blair. After the UP acquired control of the C&NW in 1995, it implemented directional running in late 1996, taking eastbound trains (including Powder River Basin coal) over the longer but flatter Omaha Subdivision through Council Bluffs. However, high-priority "Z" intermodal trains use the Blair Subdivision in both directions. [1]
The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about 120 miles (190 km) east to west and 200 miles (320 km) north to south, known for its coal deposits. The region supplies about 40 percent of coal in the United States. It is both a topographic drainage and geologic structural basin. The basin is so named because it is drained by the Powder River, although it is also drained in part by the Cheyenne River, Tongue River, Bighorn River, Little Missouri River, Platte River, and their tributaries.
Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and forms part of the Omaha (Nebr.) Metropolitan Area. It is located on the east bank of the Missouri River, across from the city of Omaha. Council Bluffs was known, until at least 1853, as Kanesville. It was the historic starting point of the Mormon Trail. Kanesville is also the northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trails, since there was a steam powered boat to ferry their wagons, and cattle, across the Missouri River.
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and also in New Mexico and Texas through subsidiaries Colorado and Southern Railway, Fort Worth and Denver Railway, and Burlington-Rock Island Railroad. Its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver. Because of this extensive trackage in the midwest and mountain states, the railroad used the advertising slogans "Everywhere West", "Way of the Zephyrs", and "The Way West".
The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the North Western. The railroad operated more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s. Until 1972, when the employees purchased the company, it was named the Chicago and North Western Railway.
The Iowa Interstate Railroad is a Class II regional railroad operating in the central United States. The railroad is owned by Railroad Development Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway or Omaha Road was a railroad in the U.S. states of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota. It was incorporated in 1880 as a consolidation of the Chicago, St. Paul and Minneapolis Railway and the North Wisconsin Railway. The Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) gained control in 1882. The C&NW leased the Omaha Road in 1957 and merged the company into itself in 1972.
The Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad (FE&MV), sometimes called "the Elkhorn," was a railroad established in 1869 in the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States.
The Fremont and Elkhorn Valley Railroad was a 17-mile (27 km) heritage railroad headquartered in Dodge County, Nebraska. It is owned by the Nebraska Railroad Museum which offered excursion services with the equipment of the FEVR system.
The Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad was a railroad chartered to run from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Council Bluffs, Iowa on the Missouri River. It was the first railroad to reach Council Bluffs, Iowa, the eastern terminus of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The city of Ames, Iowa was created as a station stop on the line. It was one of four railroads that were built as result of the Iowa Land Bill of 1856 that gave land grants for railroads.
The Iowa Northern Railway is a Class III shortline railroad operating in the U.S. state of Iowa.
Railroads in Omaha, Nebraska have been integral to the growth and development of the city, the state of Nebraska, the Western United States and the entire United States. The convergence of many railroad forces upon the city was by happenstance and synergy, as none of the Omaha leaders had a comprehensive strategy for bringing railroads to the city.
The Omaha Belt Line was a 15-mile (24 km) long railroad that circumnavigated Omaha, Nebraska, starting in 1885. The organization behind the line, called the Omaha Belt Railway, was incorporated two years earlier, in 1883. Carrying passengers and cargo, the original line was operated by the Missouri Pacific Railroad, with the first line from the Sarpy County line into Downtown Omaha.
U.S. Highway 75 is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs for 1,239 miles (1,994 km) from Dallas, Texas to Kittson County, Minnesota where it ends just short of the Canada–United States border. Within the State of Nebraska it is a state highway that enters Nebraska on the Kansas state line about 9 miles (14 km) south of Dawson and travels north across the extreme eastern portion of the state, to the Nebraska–Iowa border in South Sioux City where it crosses the Missouri River along a concurrency with Interstate 129. The northern 210 miles (340 km) of the route generally travels parallel to the Missouri River. The 87.32-mile (140.53 km) section between the I-680 interchange in Omaha and the Interstate 129 interchange is designated the Lewis & Clark Scenic Byway, one of nine scenic byways in the state.
Milwaukee Road Depot can refer to the following former and active train stations used by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad:
Wyoming Central Railway was a railroad in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The railroad was incorporated in October 1885 and built a line from Chadron, Nebraska through Douglas to Casper. The line was initially leased to the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad and the two railroads consolidated in 1891. The FE&MV was merged into Chicago and North Western Transportation Company in 1903 and the line was extended to Lander.
The Muscatine and Iowa City Railway was a short-lived railroad that leased several lines in southeastern Iowa in 1916 from the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway. Those lines had been built in the 1870s and 1880s by predecessors of the Rock Island, and were mostly abandoned in the 1970s.
The Mankato Subdivision or Mankato Sub is a railway line operated by the Union Pacific Railroad. It runs generally southwest, starting at Chestnut Street in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where it crosses the Mississippi River, then runs south along the Mississippi and then the Minnesota River to Mankato, where it turns away from the river and continues west to St. James. From there Union Pacific's rails continue southwest toward Sioux City, Iowa, as the railroad's Worthington Subdivision.
The Mills Tower Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in Iowa Falls, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. At the time of its nomination the district consisted of six resources, including two contributing buildings, and four non-contributing buildings. All of the buildings are associated with the Illinois Central Railroad (IC). The Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad, an affiliate of the IC, laid the first rail track to Iowa Falls in 1866. The following year the Iowa Falls & Sioux City Railroad, another IC affiliate, continued construction of the line to the west, and it reached Sioux City by 1870. The Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway (BCR&N) by way of its affiliate the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Falls & North Western, entered Iowa Falls in 1880. Two years later it was expanded to the north and intersected with the IC main line, which required a controlled crossing. Little is known about this first crossing and what it contained.