Rails East to Promontory The Utah Stations

Railroad use: 1869-ca. 1910
702.1 miles from San Francisco
T. 9 N., R. 15 W., Sec. 13, SLM

Terrace served the Central Pacific as the maintenance and repair headquarters for the Salt Lake Division (Wells, Nevada to Ogden, Utah). Facilities included a 16-stall roundhouse, machine shop, coal sheds, water tanks, and an eight-track switchyard (Fig. 29, 30). Terrace, sustained by the railroad shops, prospered and became a population center in northwestern Utah (Fig. 31, 32, 33, and 37).

Figure 29: 1873 Cadastral Plat showing Terrace T. 9 N., R. 15 W. (click on image for a PDF version)

Figure 30: Terrace, (compiled from Southern Pacific station plans dating from the 1880's). (click on image for a PDF version)

Figure 31: Terrace mainstreet in 1875 (Southern Pacific Photograph).

Figure 32: Terrace railroad depot and mainstreet ca. 1880 (courtesy of Southern Pacific).

Figure 33: Looking west at Terrace Railroad yard. Structures from left to right: Coal Shed, Water Tank and Housing, Machine Shop, Combination Depot/Hotel, Tool House (Courtesy of Utah State Historical Society).

Figure 34: Terrace switchyard looking west. (BLM photo).

Terrace was described as supporting "good business stores, a school, Wells Fargo and Company Express, railroad and telegraph agents" (Utah State Gazetteer 1900). Businesses and proprietors in 1880 included:

Business buildings lined a wide avenue north of the tracks. Residential structures, scattered and illogically placed in the earliest years, were normally located south of the tracks. A communal center and structure known as the Athenium contained bath houses and a reading room or library. Carr (1972:12) indicates that each resident was asked to pay a small tax to support the facility. The Athenium or library is often confused with the remains of a large red brick building shown in Figure 41 (cf Carr 1972:12, Tinker 1964:20). According to railroad station plans (Fig. 30), the brick building housed railroad offices and shops.

Population figures for Terrace vary. Tinker (1964:20) estimates 1,000 people at peak. Recorded population figures include:

The Chinese who continued to work for the railroad after its completion, settled in the east end of Terrace. Tinker (1964:21) estimates a population of 500 "coolies". A census recorded a smaller Chinese population.

"According to the 1880 Census there were fifty-four Chinese in Terrace, only one of whom was a woman. Most of the men were railroad employees, but others were independent small businessmen. One man named Hong Lee "kept a store," another, Wah Hing, ran a laundry. Ching Moon was a grocer, and the only woman, true to frontier expectations, was a 28-year old prostitute. One Wong Tz Chong performed the handiwork of a tailor, and another, Ah Lei, raised vegetables in his own garden. Apparently there were two Chinese laundries in Terrace, because Wa Hop was a laundry proprietor also."

(Conley 1976:256)

Onsite investigations of Terrace identified the remains of the Chinese shanties and dugouts.

A description of a pioneer Chinatown in Nevada provides further insight:

"Ramshackle stoves provided heat and cooking facilities. Small metal lamps burning peanut oil provided light. The Celestials, as they were often referred to, slept on pallets of straw. Many of the Chinese kept small Joss sanctuaries (Joss is a Chinese pidgen english for god, derived from deus). The Joss idol was a household divinity decorated with peacock feathers, gilt, red laquer, and pictures of dragons and devils."

Wallace E. Clay lived with the Chinese of Blue Creek, Figure 16, (a siding east of Promontory Summit) from 1889 to 1892. Excerpts from his oral history are recorded by Don C. Conley in "The Peoples of Utah" (Papanikolas 1976). Clay's observations provide a glimpse of the domestic life of Chinese in Terrace and other Promontory route stations.

"When not 'raising taps and tapping ties' those good Chinamen, among whom were 'my very best friends' were many who probably got homesick for their wives and children in China, so they took me as a sort of pet and they gave me much Chinese candy and firecrackers and Chinese money and they asked many questions about American life and I asked them many questions about life in China. . . I will now describe how my 'Chinese friends' lived at old Blue Creek Station in 1891. The antiquated box-car they lived in had been remodeled into a 'work-car,' in one end of which a series of small bunk beds had been built as a vertical column of three bunks, one above the other on both sides of the car-end from floor to ceiling so that around eighteen Chinamen could sleep in the bedroom end of the car, while the other end of the car served as a kitchen and dining room wherein there was a cast iron cook stove with its stove pipe going up through the roof of the car and with all kinds of pots and pans and skillets hanging around the walls, plus cubby holes for tea cups and big and little blue china bowls and chop sticks and wooden table and benches - - about like we now find in forest service camp grounds - - occupying the middle of the car.

(Clay in Conley 1976:264)

A letter from Terrace, Utah 1888 (Courtesy of Southern Pacific) (click on image for a PDF version)

The Chinese cuisine included brown bayou beans, dried oysters, abalone, cuttlefish, dried bamboo sprouts, mushrooms, pork, poultry, vermicelli, rice, cabbage, dried seaweed, crackers, sugar, four kinds of dried fruit, and five kinds of dried vegetables, Chinese bacon, peanut oil, and tea. (Kraus 1969a:111).

"The cooks built their own type of outdoor ovens in the dirt banks along side of the sidetrack; and their stake pot spits along side their bunk cars, where they did most of their cooking when the weather permitted. Each cook would have the use of a very big iron kettle hung over an open fire and into it they would drop a couple of measures of Chinese unhulled brown rice, Chinese noodles, bamboo sprouts, and dried seaweed, different Chinese seasonings, and American chickens cut up into small pieces . . . When the cook stirred up the fire the concoction began to swell until finally the kettle would be nearly full of steaming, nearly dry brown rice with the cut up chicken all through it.

"Each Chinaman would take his blue bowl and ladle it full of the mixture and deftly entwine his chopsticks between his fingers and string the mixture into his mouth in one continuous operation, while in the meantime he would be drinking his cup of tea and still more tea. I was the curious kid so the cook would ladle up a little blue bowlful for me (Little Wah Lee) and hand me a pair of chopsticks and with them I would try to eat like the rest of my buddies, but I never could get the 'knack' so I would end up eating with my fingers which would make the Chinese laugh and I would get no tea."

(Clay in Conley 1976:256)

"After dinner and on weekends, one can envisage a thin haze of opium smoke lingering over Terrace's Chinese quarter. Opium looking like a thick black syrup, is smoked in pipes alone or mixed with tobacco."

(Murbarger 1963:24)

"This together with gambling was the only pleasure the poor devils had."

(Thorton in Murbarger 1963:24)

A 12-mile wooden aqueduct, from springs charging Rosebud Creek in the Grouse Creek Mountains, supplied Terrace with water for domestic and railroad use. A reservoir and structures built of ties, located today at the Rosebud Ranch, mark the probable source (Fig. 35). An engineering report describes the aqueduct being replaced by a 3.5-inch metal pipe in October of 1887 (Fig. 36) by Chinese and Anglo section crews. Water was stored in three tanks and the Athenium. Efforts to drill wells in Terrace proved fruitless as engineering reports filed with the Southern Pacific in 1892 reveal:

"May 5, 1892 - Experimental well sunk 8' wide by 35' deep, unsuccessful
June 4, 1892 - Well sunk 3' wide by 75' deep, no water
July 1892 - Terminated well efforts."

Figure 35: Rosebud reservoir taken from the earthen dam at Rosebud Ranch (BLM photo)

Figure 36: Sections of the water pipeline leading from the reservoir to Terrace can be seen in the desert. Looking southwest towards Terrace Mountain. (BLM photo)

Being chiefly dependent upon the railroad, Terrace began to suffer after the rerouting of transcontinental traffic over the Lucin Cutoff. Only three trains a week (down from ten a day) passed through Terrace. Additionally, the maintenance shops were moved to Carlin, Nevada (Carr 1972:12; Tinker 1964:20). Historical accounts indicate that a sweeping fire in the early 20th Century hastened Terrace's demise. Records vary on the date of the fire: 1900 (Conley 1976:258; Carr 1972:12) and 1907 (Tinker 1964:20). An extensive search of the Box Elder News 1900 to 1908, failed to reveal a report of the fire. Terrace lingered, still having a Justice of the Peace and Constable in January of 1908 (Box Elder News 1908).

Extensive evidence of Terrace remains today. Figure 34 shows the switchyard; Figure 38 the roundhouse; Figure 39, 40 the turntable; Figure 41 the brick building; and Figure 42 the basement or lower floor of a Terrace Hotel. Numerous depressions and foundations locate the businesses, homes, and the Chinese settlement. The cemetery is located east of town on the south side of the track.

Figure 37: Locomotive "Gold Run" outside Terrace Roundhouse with master mechanic William McKenzie; J. A. Jacobs, agent and Charles Wright, engineer. (Courtesy of Utah State Historical Society)

Figure 38: Remnant stalls from Terrace Roundhouse (BLM photo)

Figure 39: Turntable depression at Terrace (BLM photo)

Figure 40: Detail of turntable foundation at Terrace (BLM photo)

Figure 41: Central Pacific shop & office building (BLM photo)

Figure 42: Plumbing system of Terrace hotel (BLM photo)

Railroad use: Unknown
703.5 miles from San Francisco
T. 9 N., R. 15 W., Sec. 12 NE1/4, SLM

A siding one mile east of Terrace corresponds with the notation "Old Terrace" on the engineering profile. Other than this notation, the authors found no other reference to "Old Terrace." With heavy rail traffic in and out of Terrace, it may have been necessary to install a back-up, auxiliary siding to relieve congestion and track blockage. Figure 29 indicates an aqueduct may have terminated in the vicinity of Old Terrace. Possibly a water holding tank existed at the location.

A Terrace tombstone

Onsite investigations indicate that Old Terrace was uninhabited and lacked permanent facilities. An enclosure made from pipes laid in concrete posts may mark a single grave or graves. Its construction is identical to a cemetery enclosure at Kelton. No grave markers remain. Artifacts at Old Terrace are scarce except for an occasional glass sherd or piece of metal.

Railroad use: May 30, 1895 - 1907
708.5 miles from San Francisco
T. 9 N., R. 14 W., Sec. 3 SE1/4, SLM

The Red Dome siding (Fig. 43) was completed in 1895 to accommodate increased railroad activity and possibly area ranchers. From surface evidence, it appears that no support facilities were constructed. Railroad records indicate that siding maintenance terminated in 1907. The siding takes its name from Red Dome Pass, 16 track miles to the east Mountain, two miles to the north.

Figure 43: Red Dome Siding looking east (BLM photo)