arrived with a large number of passengers from California. Shortly, two trains on the Union Pacific road from the East, and at 11 A.M. Governor Stanford's train arrived from California. The ground was cleared by the Chinese workmen and the last two rails were placed in order. The last tie laid made of California "Laurel", was extra large, finely polished, and ornamented with a silver escutcheon bearing the inscription, "The last tie laid on the Union Pacific Railroad, 10 May 1869." Incidently, this historic tie after serving the purpose for which it was intended, was placed with other historic collections in the Union Pacific museum at Omaha. When time arrived to drive the last spike, confusion was silenced, hats were removed, and Reverend Dr. Todd of Massachusetts offered prayer. Dr. Durrant, vice-president of the Union Pacific, stood on the east side of the tie and Governor Stanford on the west side, and at the signal, struck alternately until the driving was completed. The two locomotives facing each other, the Union Pacific on the east and Central Pacific on the west, moved slowly toward each other until they touched. The building of the great transcontinental railroad was completed, connecting the industrial east with the arid west. The building of this railroad was in keeping with the Pioneering of the West. The penetration of the Western Frontier by the "iron horse," represented not only an accomplishment of the skillful engineering, toil, and worry, but the significance of the part it would play in the future development of a great inland empire. The magnitude of that enterprise, the promoters declared, surpassed any previous construction project ever attemped at that time in the scope of territory covered, and vast number of people and industrial institutions it would serve in the future. During two world conflicts within limits of half a century, the railroad proved to be the surest, swiftest, dependable means the Government had in transferring troops, provisions, and weapons of war to and from army installations over the inland country, and to ports of embarkation on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. As we contemplate that a construction job covering a distance of 1,080 miles being completed in a little over three years, we marvel at such an achievement. Yet, this unparalleled accomplishment was achieved by the labor of 18,000 burly Irishmen, equipped with picks, hand shovels, and wheelbarrows. These workers prepared the road bed, built the grade, bridged the streams, and laid the steel over the rolling prairie, high mountain passes, and through rugged canyons emerging from Weber Canyon, entered the Salt Lake Valley south of Ogden, and continued to build over a stretch of fifty miles northwest from Ogden to Promontory Hill where builders of the Central Pacific, with a working crew of 12,000 Chinese, were met. The marvelous achievements in building either of the roads, even under the adverse conditions with which they had to contend, would pose a challenge to builders of our day with heavy dirt-moving equipment, carry-alls, steam shovels, draglines, trucks, and tractors at their disposal. The impact of the reality of an established transportation system through the West affected even the most remote communities of our state. The small town of Corinne, located on the alkali flats about thrity miles northwest from Ogden, and twenty miles east of the spot where the two roads eventually met, had been a freighting terminal for a number of years. As such, it also became recognized as a business center which, with the advent of the -116- railroad and the thousands of construction workers that came into the vicinity, bloomed into a swarming hive of men and women. Immorality and crime became flagrant. Saloons, gambling dens, and houses of ill fame, operated unmolested around the clock. The writer, some years ago, received first-hand information relative to the history of Corinne during the boom days from one sufficiently advanced in years that he well remembered daily events that happened there at that time. The town, he said, as everybody knew, was infliltrated with men and women who disregarded all rules of ethics and decency and respect for law and order. Almost every morning, he went on to say, report of a murder committed in one or another den during a drunken brawl over cards or women the proceeding night, was a matter of common news. Incidently, hanging on the wall in the small frame, now abandoned, town hall in that once flourishing community, is a life-size bust picture of Mr. Guthre, the mayor or town boss, who grew wealthy with proceeds from crime he condoned during hilarious boom days of that place. A comparatively recent comment coming from a reliable source, cited President Brigham Young as saying that, "Corinne and immediate vicinity, after the boom and bust days, would remain a barren wast." However, the surrounding land that offered little or no inducement to the agriculturist for many years has been reclaimed and is today actually one of the richest agricultural sections of our state. Orchards, thriving crops of hay, grain, sugar beets, and luscious pastures of clover and various grasses on which beef and dairy cattle feed, attest to the validity of that statement. Then the railroad was completed thousands of construction workers, many of whom had passed their leisure time in Corinne and left their earnings there, were forced to leave the vicinity to seek employment elsewhere. Migration of the vast army of workers whose spending formed the backbone of Corinne's economy, destined the small urban center to become a ghost town, Much has been accomplished the past half century in reclaiming land of that area, but progress in rehabilitating Corinne itself has not been startling. Until comparatively recent years, vacant buildings, formerly stores; saloons; casinos; delapidated frame dwellings, and livery stables, remained as mute evidence of the decay and desolation of a once flourishing community. Effect extension of the railroad through the West had on the economy of the inland region at that early date, would be difficult to determine with the limited information available a hundred years later. We do know, however, that in Slaterville, ventures in different kinds of business were made by some during the sixties and years following the completion of the railroad. It is understood, President Brigham Young in the early days of colonization some years before the railroad era, instructed the Saints on what to produce on the land to make them self-sustaining. Each family he said, "aside from raising feed for stock should see that grain bins are filled with wheat, keep a flock of chickens, a number of cows, and some hogs to assure a supply of eggs, milk, butter, and pork. Keep at least three hives of bees, and more if possible, and raise a small acreage of sugar cane, work together and establish a community molasses mill. Honey produced and stored by the bees -117-