Old West Group

The Transcontinental Railroad connected Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California, thus feeding off other independent tracks in every direction to St Joseph, Missouri; Denver, Colorado; and others all the way west to Sacramento, California... even south to Texas, and north to Canadian territories.

Background : The Union Pacific Railroad Company began laying tracks in Omaha, Nebraska in 1863. That same year, the Central Pacific Railroad Company began laying tracks in Sacramento, California.
❖ The Union Pacific headed westward through Nebraska into the southern parts of Wyoming.
❖ The Central Pacific headed eastward, tunneling through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and then into Nevada.
❖ On May 10, 1869, the two companies met at Promontory Summit, Utah, to lay the final track. The track spanned around 1,775 miles. The Transcontinental Railroad connected Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California, thus feeding off other independent tracks in every direction.

❖ Omaha
The Transcontinental Railroad connected Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California.

❖ St Joseph
The Transcontinental Railroad connected Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California, thus feeding off other independent tracks in every direction, for example, St Joseph, Missouri was already an established starting point for many settlers, now from the rails of the east connecting to the rails of the west.


The High Plains has been home to many Plains Indian tribes, including the Arapaho, Arikara, Bannock, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Nez Perce, Sheep Eater, Sioux, Shoshone and Ute tribes, to name a few. Wyoming Territory’s trails and roads follow centuries-old Nations hunting and trade routes. For generations, Shoshone, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Ute, Lakota and Crow people gathered plants, visited family, and tracked game along watercourses and over mountain passes in the seasonal subsistence patterns of their lives. Now that the iron horse has crossed Nations', there only remains the various villages of the Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone Nations.

❖ Arapaho Villages

❖ Crow Villages

❖ Shoshone Villages


The High Plains are a subregion of the Great Plains, mainly in the the Indian Nations, and western United States. This included the Colorado Territory, Idaho Territory, Utah Territory, and the Southern Dakota Territory, as well as the state of Nebraska. Although those areas as well as the states of Kansas and Texas are generally included in the Great Plains before it reaches the Rocky Mountains.


❖ Colorado Territory
Eastern Colorado territory from the Kansas border to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Some cities and towns include St. Vrains, Sterling, Julesberg, Denver, Huntsville, Castle Rock, Colorado City, Pueblo, Beaver Creek, and Burlington.


❖ Idaho Territory
By 1863, the area west of the Continental Divide that was formerly part of the huge Oregon Territory (by now some was a state) had been sundered from the coastal Washington Territory north of the young State of Oregon to the far west and the remnant of the Oregon Territory was officially 'unorganized'— whereas most of the area east of the Continental Divide had been part of the loosely defined Dakota Territory ending along the 49th parallel—now the border with Canada, then a colonial possession of Great Britain.

The original newly organized territory covered all of the present-day states of Idaho and Montana, and almost all of the present day state of Wyoming, omitting only a corner in the state's extreme southwest portion. It was wholly spanned east-to-west by the bustling Oregon Trail and partly by the other emigrant trails, the California Trail and Mormon Trail which since hitting stride in 1847, had been conveying settler wagon trains to the west, and incidentally, across the continental divide into the Snake River Basin, a key gateway into the Idaho and Oregon Country interiors.

The first territorial capital was at Lewiston from the inception in 1863 to 1866. Boise was made the territorial capital from 1866 by a one-vote margin of the Territorial Supreme Court.

Although the 1863, Bear River Massacre is considered to be the westernmost battle of the Civil War, the upheaval caused by the Civil War and Reconstruction was a distant concern to those in the comparatively stable Idaho Territory, a situation which in turn encouraged settlement.

❖ Montana Territory
In 1864, the Montana Territory was organized from the northeastern section of the territory east of the Bitterroot Range. Most of the southeastern area of the territory was made part of the Dakota Territory.

In the late 1860s Idaho Territory became a destination for displaced Southern Democrats who fought for the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. These people were well represented in the early territorial legislatures, which often clashed with the appointed Republican territorial governors. The political infighting became particularly vicious in 1867, when Governor David W. Ballard asked for protection from federal troops stationed at Fort Boise against the territorial legislature. By 1870, however, the political infighting had decreased considerably.

In 1868, the areas east of the 111th meridian west were made part of the newly created Wyoming Territory. Idaho Territory assumed the boundaries of the modern state at that time.

The discovery of gold, silver and other valuable natural resources throughout Idaho beginning in the 1860s, as well as the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, brought many new people to the territory, including Chinese laborers who came to work the mines.

As Idaho approached statehood, mining and other extractive industries became increasingly important to its economy.

By the 1890s, for example, Idaho exported more lead than any other state.


❖ Kansas (1861)
Western Kansas from Salina and Wichita westward to Buffalo Springs on the border of the Colorado Territory. Some cities and towns include Dodge City, Garden City, Oakley, Goodland, Arkalon, Claytonville, Rock Creek, and Whiskey Point.


❖ Nebraska (1867)
Western Nebraska from Kearney to Harrison on the eastern northern border of Colorado and the southeastern Wyoming Territories. Some cities and towns include Platte, Scottsbluff, McCook, Rock Creek, St Dedroin, Vacoma, and Watertown.


❖ Southern Dakota Territory
Northern Indian Territory (Dakotas) where people braved the elements to establish towns and settlements such as Addie Camp, Annie Creek, Ardmore, Beecher Rock, Burdock, Cascade Flats, Conata, Deadwood, and Farmington.


❖ Texas and the Indian Nations
Texas (1845) and the Young (Oklahoma) Territory

Northwestern Texas from Abilene and Fort Worth north to Wichita Falls and into the Young Territory and the Indian Nations. people braved the elements and hostile environment to establish cities, towns and settlements such as Abilene, Fort Worth, Amarillo, Adobe Walls, Hide Town, Iron Bridge, Jim Town, Santa Rita, Raynor, and Senterfitt.

❖ Utah Territory

The creation of the Utah Territory was partially the result of the petition sent by the Mormon pioneers who had settled in the valley of the Great Salt Lake starting in 1847.

The Mormons, under the leadership of Brigham Young, had petitioned Congress for entry into the Union as the State of Deseret, with its capital as Salt Lake City and with proposed borders that encompassed the entire Great Basin and the watershed of the Colorado River. The Mormon settlers had drafted a state constitution in 1849 and Deseret had become the de facto government in the Great Basin by the time of the creation of the Utah Territory.

The controversies stirred by the Mormon religion's dominance of the territory are regarded as the primary reason behind the long delay of 46 years between the organization of the territory and its admission to the Union in 1896 as the State of Utah, long after the admission of territories created after it.