Chapter 2 STEELING THE WEST 25 In the early 1900s the Utah Construction Company hired contractor Andrew H. Christensen, an experienced contractor who had worked with Corey Brothers. Despite hot weather, Dee contracted pneumonia and died six days later. On August 7, 1905, W. H. Wattis called a meeting of the board of directors. After appropriate and heartfelt memorials, the board selected David Eccles to serve as Dee’s successor. (Eccles would serve in that capacity until his sudden death of a heart attack on December 5, 1912, at the age of sixty-two.) By the time the mantle passed to Eccles, Utah had accepted its most daunting contract yet, a project so challenging that it would establish the company’s reputation as a premier builder of railroads. Late in 1904, the company won a bid to build a line over Western Pacific’s Feather River route, stretching 942 miles between Salt Lake City and Oakland, California. Utah received $22.3 million for its share of the $60 million award. The job consumed more than five years, beginning with a ceremonial driving of the first spike at Oakland on January 2, 1906, and ending with the joining