Chapter 2 STEELING THE WEST 33 Starting in 1923, Southern Pacific initiated a series of contracts of a similar nature with Utah, including the construction of track between Montello and Valley Pass; between Wells and More, Nevada; and between Truckee and Andover, California; as well as a job near Mojave, California, involving tunnel work. Other work that came to the company during 1923 required minor railroad construction at Garfield, Utah; tunnel work for Utah Railway; betterment work on the entire OSL system; and numerous small contracts in Wyoming for Union Pacific. After the Feather River operation, these relatively small jobs, as important as they were to the company, demanded only a fraction of its abilities in undertaking projects of major proportions. Then, in 1923, the Utah Construction Company reached a significant milestone with its first international agreement, a challenging $7,029,500 contract from Southern Pacific of Mexico to build a 110-mile railroad line through the rugged country between La Quemada and Tepic (near Guadalajara) in western Mexico. This time, the whole gamut of construction hurdles—terrain, weather, labor, the political environment, and logistics—would test Utah’s mettle to its core.