Archive for July 11, 2010

Grand Genealogy Journey: En Route to the Centennial State

July 11, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy

The California Zephyr pulls out of Salt Lake City at 4:10 a.m. on its 15 hour eastbound trip to Denver.  The trip between Salt Lake City and Denver is, like everything else on this trip, extremely interesting.  Here’s a brief description of some of the sights we’ll see:

  • Provo, Utah: 45 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, this growing town of over 100, 000, is home to Brigham Young University, which as might be expected, has several excellent genealogical resources.  These include the Center for Family History and Genealogy (find online at http://familyhistory.byu.edu/) and the family history collections of the Harold B. Lee Library (online at  http://lib.byu.edu/sites/familyhistory/ ).  Provo is also the home of ancestry.com, and several other commercial genealogy companies.

    BYU Campus

    The campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah

  • Green River, Utah: 100 miles from Provo, this is one of the gateway communities to Canyonlands National Park, about which the National Park Service says:

“Canyonlands preserves a colorful landscape eroded into countless canyons, mesas and buttes by  the Colorado River and its tributaries. The rivers divide the park into four districts: the Island in the  Sky, the Needles, the Maze and the rivers themselves. While these areas share a primitive desert atmosphere, each retains its own character and offers different opportunities for exploration.”

Canyonlands National Park Home page at http://www.nps.gov/cany/index.htm

Canyonlands NP

A trail along the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Soon we cross the Colorado state line and at about 11 a.m. we come to to the town of Grand Junction.  This is the largest city on Colorado’s Western slope.  The town of 60,000 is the anchor to a metropolitan region of more than 150,000.  The city is a transportation hub for traffic moving between Colorado and Utah.

Grand Junction

City of Grand Junction, Colorado

Two hours later, the train arrives in the popular town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado.  The main attraction in this town is the Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge and the  Glenwood Caverns.  The town sits atop natural hot springs, to which thousands of tourists flock every year.  The town is at the end of Glenwood Canyon, where in the 1970s a famous fight between certain local interests and environmentalists, led by, among others, the singer John Denver was waged over whether the route of Interstate 70 would go through the Canyon.  (Denver and the environmentalists  won).

Glenwood_Springs_Amtrak

The California Zephyr at Glenwood Springs, Colorado

The Zephyr then finds its way through Glenwood Canyon and upslope to Granby, Colorado, elevation 7945 feet.  Granby, a village of 1500, is adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park. Like Glenwood Springs, Granby exists because of the Denver & Río Grande Western Railroad.  At Granby, the train continues its ascent up the slope.  In about half an hour we are at Fraser, Colorado, elevation 8,574 feet, which shares its Amtrak station with the nearby village of Winter Park, elevation 9, 052 feet.  People come here to sunbathe.  (Just joking–but if you’re lucky, you’ll find a sunny day to ski at Winter Park ski resort.).

Downtown Winter Park

Winter Park, Colorado on a sunny day; Continental Divide is in background.

It’s nearly a three-hour ride down the side of the mountains into our destination city of Denver!

Photo Credits: All courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, except photo of Canyonlands  National Park.  Photo of Canyonlands National Park, courtesy of U.S. Dept of Interior, National Park Service

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Grand Genealogy Journey: Salt Lake City!

July 6, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy
Downtown Salt Lake City

Downtown Salt Lake City

The eastbound California Zephyr arrives in Salt Lake City at 3:45 a.m. Mountain Time.  It’s chilly in Salt Lake at that time of the morning regardless of the season! But you can easily catch a cab at that hour from the Amtrak station (which is not a very pretty or comfortable building) to the downtown hotels.   For me, the hotel of choice is the Plaza, which is next door to the Family History Library.  I’ve also stayed at Little America.  The Plaza has basic (yet comfortable accommodations) such as would be found at any mid-range lodging.  Little America is a more upscale experience.  The Plaza has the benefit of location, but if you stay anyplace else, Salt Lake City has an outstanding light rail system to get you to the Family History Library.

Here’s some advice on preparing for a trip to the Family History Library: First, decide which surnames or areas you want to focus on. Then set goals for your research on those families or areas. Figure out the categories of resources you may need. Go to the Family History Library Catalog online to see what resources are available. Make a list of call numbers and titles of books and film numbers of microfilm and take that with you. [You can do this on the computers at the Library, but it saves time and helps focus your research if you do it before going]. Some microfilm is stored off-site, so if you manage to get organized sufficiently in advance, you can call or fax the Library with a list of those resources, and they may be able to get them before you arrive. Once at the Library, don’t hesitate to ask the staff and volunteers for help. They won’t do the work for you, but they’ll gladly share tips and advice.

LDS Family History Library

LDS Family History Library, Salt Lake City

You can take your laptop into the Library; there are plenty of places to hook up.  But please, please, follow the rules about where you can use cell phones! There are plenty of easy places in the building to use your cell phone, so be a good neighbor on that issue.

I would recommend spending at least three days at the Family History Library, especially if you’re a first-timer.  That’s because I predict that if you have organized well. you’ll start making discoveries pretty quickly and you’ll want to try to get to everything on your list.

The Library’s resources are in a variety of media, including microfilm. I would point out to those raised exclusively in the digital age that working with microfilm is not exactly simple. First there are the physical aspects of the medium: you have to place the reels on mechanical spools and hand-crank through the frames. [There are some electronic microfilm readers, but most are if the hand-crank variety]. Then there is the nature of the content you’re working with: ancient records with no indices in many cases; certainly no “search” function! Those documents that do have indices often are only casually alphabetized. And that’s because before the digital age, “cut-and-paste” was a physical, not a virtual operation, and thus not undertaken. So without careful preparation and some computer aid, microfilm research can be time consuming.

Naturally, the Library has a vast collection of books and other printed matter; don’t fail to examine these resources.   For up-to-date information about the Library, go to https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Family_History_Library.

There is a small canteen in the Library with food and drink vending machines; genealogical research can make you forget to eat real meals!  But afterwards, save some time for a great meal at some of the terrific restaurants in Salt Lake City.  The offerings are quite diverse and range up to the five star category.

Salt Lake City is one of the most attractive midsized cities in the nation; you’ll want to return again to do things other than just genealogical research!

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Grand Genealogy Journey: Sightseeing Enroute to Salt Lake City

July 6, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy

After leaving Elko, Nevada, at eleven minutes after 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time, the California Zephyr continues east on its way to Salt Lake City. The route of the Zephyr through eastern Nevada and Utah mainly runs adjacent to Interstate 80, at least to near Wells, Nevada. The tracks are basically in same place as were the original road of the Transcontinental Railroad, with some deviations. Since this portion of the trip is entirely in the dark, with no scheduled stops, there’s nothing much to be seen. In fact, however, this segment covers some of the most interesting and historic terrain in the nation.

Great Basin Map

The Great Basin -- Courtesy U.S. Dept of Interior, National Park Service

We’re in the eastern half of the Great Basin, a huge watershed covering more than 200,000 square miles of the western United States and northern Mexico. Although the Basin includes rivers (e.g., the Colorado River) lakes (e.g., Lake Tahoe), and mountains (e.g., the Sierra Nevada) a large part of it is desert. But before this area became desert, much of eastern Nevada and western Utah was submerged beneath the prehistoric Lake Bonneville. This water body, which existed between 32,000 and 14, 000 years ago, covered about 20,000 square miles (or about 10% of the Great Basin). It was 1,000 feet deep. The lake overflowed about 14,000 years ago, leaving several remnants, such as the Great Salt Lake.

Bonneville Salt Flats

The Bonneville Salt Flats -- Courtesy U.S. Dept of Interior, Bureau of Land Management

One of the most picturesque areas once under Lake Bonneville is the Bonneville Salt Flats.   Familiar to many people from movies and car commercials, the Flats have been the site of land speed trials. In 1935, Briton Malcolm Campbell first broke the 300-mph barrier at Bonneville. By 1964, after several attempts, Craig Breedlove, driving the turbojet-powered  Spirit of America, passed 600 mph at Bonneville. The current land speed record over a 1 mile course,  a supersonic 763 mph, is held by Andy Green of the UK.  He drove the twin turbofan ThrustSSC to the mark in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert on October 15, 1997. [In 2003, an Air Force rocket sled travelled a three-mile railed course at 6,416 mph (Mach 8.3; hypersonic) in the Tularosa Basin in New Mexico. It was unmanned.]

The California Zephyr, as mentioned, generally follows the route of I-80 thr0ugh Nevada and Utah. Before the highway was I-80, it was the now-historic US 40, which originally ran from Atlantic City, New Jersey to San Francisco. Even earlier, however, the same general route was used by the Pony Express during its brief lifetime (1860-61).

Pony Express Map

Territory of the Pony Express -- Courtesy Library of Congress

The Pony Express ran between St Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento. With riders switching to fresh horses at stations along the route  The Express could get a letter from coast to coast in about ten days.  The success of the Pony Express was in part its undoing.  Its speed and efficiency often was a conversation starter about a transcontinental railroad.

The Salt Flats present an eerie image in the daylight; omnipresent mirages seem to want to tell a story that they know.  In the dark of night, as the eastbound California Zephyr passes by, the scene is spectral.

Another sight we miss in the darkness is Promontory Summit, Utah.  This is the place where, on May 15, 1869, a golden spike was driven to link the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad, thus completing the western portion of a transcontinental rail system. Actually, we wouldn’t be able to see the site even in daylight, since the rail route was reconstructed in 1904 to bypass Promontory.

Golden Spike

The Last Spike is driven at Promontory Summit, Utah, to link the Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento to the Union Pacific from Omaha.

The California Zephyr, eastbound,  arrives in Salt Lake City at 3:45 a.m. Mountain Time.

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Grand Genealogy Journey: Aboard the California Zephyr

July 1, 2010 Craig Family History
California Zephyr

The California Zephyr arrives at Galesburg, Illinois

Amtrak’s California Zephyr runs between Emeryville, California (near Oakland), and Chicago, Illinois. The present Zephyr is the latest incarnation of a venerable train that began service in 1949, as the Golden Age of Trains was about to begin its decline.

The route of the Zephyr is one of the longest operated by Amtrak. The original Zephyr operated on the tracks and stock of three different companies, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Denver & Rio Grande Western, and the Western Pacific. The present day route varies a bit from the original, but it still remains one of the most scenic passenger rail routes in America.

Our virtual journey will take us from Sacramento to Salt Lake City aboard the Zephyr. The train leaves from Emeryville, 75 miles southwest of Sacramento, each morning at 9:50 am and arrives at the historic Sacramento Valley Station two hours later. It will have made stops in Martinez and Davis. Also boarding the train with us in Sacramento are several volunteer docents from the California State Railroad Museum will narrate and comment on the portion of the trip between Sacramento and Reno. This five hour trek over the Sierra Nevada is one of the most scenic parts of the Zephyr’s route.

We’re basically following the route that Theodore Judah had laid out for the Central Pacific railroad. It winds through the northern portion of California’s Gold Country in Placer and Nevada counties. A little over an hour from Sacramento, the train stops at Colfax. a picturesque town of about 1,500, settled originally in the Gold Rush days.  The Railroad Museum docents point out that during the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, President Grant dispatched Vice President Schulyer Colfax to view the progress of the construction.  The people of the small mining community that had once been known as Alder Grove were so impressed that the Vice President of the United States had come to their town, they named the town after him!  And indeed, next to the Amtrak station, which contains a number of interesting shops, is a statue of Schulyer Colfax.    He was popular in California, having been in Congress (from Indiana) when California was admitted to the Union.  Colfax was a strong abolitionist, which also contributed to his popularity in free California.

After Colfax, the train continues up through the mountains toward the 7,000-ft.+ summit near Mount Judah (yes, Theodore again!). Then, the train begins to descend on the eastern slope through the Stanford Curve,  a back-switch with a terrific view of the Truckee river basin.

Schuyler Colfax, Vice President of the United States, 1869-1873

The next stop after Colfax is Truckee, California.  Truckee is also a picturesque Sierra village, though about ten times the size of Colfax.  Truckee is along side the Truckee river, which is Lake Tahoe’s sole outlet. Surrounding the area is the Truckee unit of the Tahoe National Forest.  West of Truckee, and visible from the Zephyr is Donner Lake, a beautiful freshwater  fishery and recreational area.  But the beauty is mitigated in some degree by the knowledge that the pass through the mountains here was the final resting place of many of  the “Donner Party” who met their demise in the winter of 1846-47. The Donner camp area is now both a National Historic Landmark and a California state park.

Donner Lake on eastern Sierra slope

At this point, it’s all  downhill for the Zephyr.   As we cross into Nevada, the docents point out the site of the first American train robbery. It occurred in 1870 at Verdi, Nevada. Today, Verdi is known for its largest hotel, Boomtown, where travelers still may be “robbed.”

The train makes three stops in Nevada: Reno, Winnemucca, and Elko–towns whose histories are intertwined with that of the Transcontinental Railroad.  It is said that railroad magnate Charles Crocker actually chose the names of Reno and Elko.

Elko County Courthouse

Winnemucca was named for Chief Winnemuca and his daughter, Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, Paiute Indian leaders in Oregon and Nevada.  Theirs is an interesting and complex story that cannot be done justice here. However, for an introduction to their story, see the profile at AccessGenealogy.com.

Chief Winnemucca

Once we pass through Elko, it’s just a hop and a skip to Utah!

Gold Rush and Nevada Genealogical Resources

Next, as the Grand Genealogy Jouurney continues: Utah and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Photo Credits:

1. California Zephyr: Courtesy of  Trainweb.com (www.trainweb.com); photo at http://www.trainweb.org/amtrakpix/itrainpix/5/

2. Schuyler Colfax: Library of Congress

3. Donner Lake: California Department of Parks and Recreation (photo here)

4. Elko County Courthouse: U.S. Dept of Agriculture (photo at http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/population/photos/ShowCH.asp?FIPS=32007)

5. Chief Winnemucca: Courtesy Burns Paiute Tribal Council (photo here)

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