from the turn of the century when its predecessor company was in corporated with six shareholders and 24,000 in capital utah inter national's expansion has been based upon the company's ability to identify and respond to needs created first by the rapid growth of the western united states and more recently by the increasing demands of world minerals markets the roots of the utah organiza tion which later branched out into every kind of earth-moving and construction job grew from railroad construction in 1906 the utah construction company completed the western pacific railroad from salt lake city to oroville califor nia via the famous 75-mile feather river gorge the same rugged nat ural features that make the feather river route a popular scenic jour ney posed complex engineering and construction problems to rail road builders working wherever possible with steam-powered shov els and frequently with light hand tools and two-wheeled mule-drawn dump wagons utah accomplished the construction of more than 40 tunnels numerous bridges and trestles and massive cutting and filling operations through earth and rock the company's impressive performance throughout the proj ect—including fine grading track laying and ballasting — led to a long series of other railroad contracts both domestic and foreign increased railroad facilities in the western u s encouraged agri cultural development which in turn created shortages of water for irri gation and the need for flood con trol projects subsequent govern ment contracting for reclamation and water supply ventures domin ated western u.s construction activity for years utah's first major dam project was the construction of o'shaugh nessy dam on california's tuo lumne river acting as sole con tractor on the 16 million venture the company completed the dam in 1924 thereafter utah participated independently or through joint ven tures in numerous dam construc tion projects including hoover 1936 the world's highest con crete arch-gravity dam bonneville 1940 the first dam across the columbia river grand coulee 1942 the largest concrete struc ture ever built and big eildon 1955 then the largest earth and steam-powered shovels consid ered mechanical marvels in the early 1900's were the forerunners of today's great earth-moving ma chines sheer mountains of rock often ris ing hundreds of feet above the stream bed of the feather river gorge had to be blasted and graded before the 75 miles of west ern pacific track were laid through the canyon at 8:15 a.m on november 20 1928 the first passenger train crossed the eastern portion of arizona's san carlos river on track laid by the utah construction company a large crowd gathered near klam ath falls for ceremonies marking the completion of the oregon shortline railroad 38