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62-676: The line dates back to the early 1880s, when the predecessors of the D&;RGW completed a 3 ft ( 914 mm ) narrow gauge line through the Royal Gorge , over Marshall Pass , through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison , across the Utah desert , and over Soldier Summit . It was rebuilt to standard gauge in 1890, and has since remained a through line, often serving as parts of larger networks including

124-479: A graduate or professional degree . Sanpete County is a largely agricultural region of the state, dotted with rural farming towns. Agriculture, livestock, small businesses, government employment, and Snow College form the economic backbone of the county. A significant industry in the county is turkey ranching and the Moroni Feed Company, a turkey producing and processing cooperative. Moroni Feed Company

186-431: A narrow gauge main line from Denver to Ogden, passing through or over Colorado Springs , Pueblo , the Royal Gorge , Salida , Marshall Pass , Gunnison , the Black Canyon of the Gunnison , Montrose , Grand Junction , Green River , and Salt Lake City. It included numerous branches, but only three west of Grand Junction - to Pleasant Valley, Bingham Canyon, and Little Cottonwood Canyon. The main line began by following

248-646: A track gauge of 3 ft ( 914 mm ) or 1 yard . This gauge is a narrow gauge and is generally found throughout North , Central , and South America . In Ireland , many secondary and industrial lines were built to 3 ft gauge, and it is the dominant gauge on the Isle of Man , where it is known as the Manx Standard Gauge . Modern 3 ft gauge railways are most commonly found in isolated mountainous areas, on small islands, or in large-scale amusement parks and theme parks (see table below). This gauge

310-449: A change. About 8,500 years ago, different groups (characterized by use of atlatls , millstones and textiles) came onto the scene. These also departed the area about 2,500 years ago, for unknown reasons, after which the area does not seem to have been visited by humans for 1,500 years. Archeological evidence indicates that the Fremont people appeared next on the stage (from about 1-1300 CE),

372-701: A cutoff from the RGW's main line near Farnham to the Marysvale Branch at Salina and beyond to the under-construction San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad (Salt Lake Route) at Milford . However, the Union Pacific gained control of the Salt Lake Route in mid-1903, forcing Gould to construct an entirely new line to California. The financing of the Western Pacific Railway (WP) would take almost all

434-540: A double hairpin curve , was completed the next year, as was a second track between Kyune and Castle Gate, completing a double-track line between Thistle and Helper, with a maximum grade of 2.4% on the east slope and 2.0% on the west. Local competition arrived in 1912, when the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company , which owned coal mines southwest of Price , organized the Utah Railway (originally

496-444: A dozen times during the 19th century. These adjustments often shrank it from its previous size. As of 1880, the county of Sanpete included the area of what would later become modern-day Carbon County, as well as some of Emery, Uintah, and Grand Counties. An adjustment in 1913 and refining of the county boundary definitions in 1919 brought Sanpete County to its present configuration. The Sanpete County Courthouse , completed in 1935 by

558-608: A mine in the Pleasant Valley south of Scofield , heading north along the present Pleasant Valley Subdivision to the Scofield Reservoir . The old grade has been flooded until it leaves the lake to the north, rising to an elevation of 7,967 feet (2,428 m) above sea level before descending, via a pair of switchbacks , to Starvation Creek . The valley of that creek took the railroad to the Spanish Fork Canyon , and

620-469: A second track. This arrangement began with the completion of the road in 1914, and the D&RG now had a double-track line between Provo and Helper. Three years later, the Utah Railway began independent operations between the mines and Provo under a reciprocal trackage rights arrangement that has persisted to the present, where each company allows the other to use its half of the double-track line. The WP

682-447: A single person living alone and 325 (3.9%) were two or more people living together. 3,190 (38.0%) of all households had children under the age of 18. 6,473 (77.1%) of households were owner-occupied while 1,921 (22.9%) were renter-occupied . The median income for a Sanpete County household was $ 55,820 and the median family income was $ 65,047, with a per-capita income of $ 21,254. The median income for males that were full-time employees

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744-478: A takeover by the D&RG until George Gould arrived. Gould, owner of the Missouri Pacific Railroad (MP), wished to create a transcontinental railroad system , and identified the D&RG/RGW as the best route west into Utah. The MP began buying D&RG stock in 1900, and the D&RG did the same with the RGW. Palmer still owned a controlling interest in the RGW, but he came to an agreement to sell

806-405: Is a part owner of the marketing cooperative Norbest . Moroni Feed Company operates several divisions throughout the county, including a turkey processing plant, hatchery, feed mill, propane store, and sales office located in and near the town of Moroni . The company employs over 600 people throughout the state, with the corporate headquarters located near Moroni. Numerous turkey barns and sheds dot

868-466: Is also popular in model railroading (particularly in G scale ), and model prototypes of these railways have been made by several model train brands around the world, such as Accucraft Trains (US), Aristo-Craft Trains (US), Bachmann Industries (Hong Kong) , Delton Locomotive Works (US), LGB (Germany) , and PIKO (Germany) . The Ferrocarril de Sóller and the Tranvía de Sóller are located on Majorca in

930-687: Is land and 12 square miles (31 km ) (0.8%) is water. The geographical center of Utah is located in Sanpete County, just west of Ephraim. Sanpete County is bounded along its eastern side by the Wasatch Plateau (sometimes known as the Manti Mountains). The Wasatch Plateau rises to approximately 11,000 feet (3,400 m). Most of the Wasatch Plateau is encompassed by the Manti Division of

992-750: Is now Sanpete County about 125 miles (201 km) north to the Salt Lake Valley to request a Mormon settlement be established. The chiefs, Walkara and Sowiette, asked Mormon leader Brigham Young to settle a group of his people in the valley of Sanpitch. Young sent a party to explore the area in August of that year. It was deemed favorable to settlement, and Brigham Young called Isaac Morley and George Washington Bradley to organize about fifty families to move south and settle "San Pete." The group of 224 arrived on November 19, led by Isaac Morley, Charles Shumway, Seth Taft, and George Washington Bradley. After some debate,

1054-511: The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad had beaten it to the best crossing into New Mexico . After several years of financially draining battle, the two companies came to an agreement in 1880, and the D&RG, under the direction of William J. Palmer , set its sights on Salt Lake City. In the meantime, the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railway (U&PV) had built a 3-foot (914mm) narrow gauge line from

1116-515: The Balearic Islands . The other railways of the Majorca rail network were also 3 ft ( 914 mm ) gauge, but with expansion and reconstruction of the network in the early 2000s, they were converted to 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ) metre gauge . Sanpete Valley Sanpete County ( / s æ n ˈ p iː t / san- PEET ) is a county in

1178-473: The Central Pacific Railroad . The expansion resulted in a large debt that the D&RG was unable to pay the interest on. D&RGW president Palmer and D&RG president Frederick Lovejoy got into an argument over the management and payment of rental for the leased D&RGW. Unable to break the lease, Lovejoy ordered the tracks torn up at the state line in retaliation, costing both railroads

1240-558: The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad 's through traffic. The D&RG entered receivership on July 12, 1884 and the D&RGW on August 12, with D&RGW superintendent W. H. Bancroft being appointed to the Utah company. The two companies resumed friendly relations, and after the D&RG reorganized on July 14, 1886, it terminated the lease of the D&RGW on July 31, giving the latter company significant amounts of rolling stock . Palmer returned to his position as D&RGW president,

1302-614: The Gould transcontinental system , Southern Pacific , and now the Union Pacific. The division also included a number of branch lines , the longest being the Marysvale Branch through the Sevier Valley . When the Denver & Rio Grande Railway (D&RG) was chartered in 1870, it had the goal of connecting Denver with El Paso, Texas . But when it reached Raton Pass in 1878, it found that

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1364-584: The Manti-La Sal National Forest . Runoff from the western slopes of these mountains provides water to the county's cities and agricultural areas. Central Sanpete is dominated by the Sanpete Valley (sometimes known as the Sanpitch Valley), where most of the county's cities are located. The western side of the valley is bounded by the lower and drier San Pitch Mountains , which also form part of

1426-721: The San Pitch River to Manti . It was extended south to Sevier in 1891, via the Sevier River , by the Sevier Railway , and that same year the Tintic Range Railway built from Springville southwest and west to Eureka in the Tintic Mountains . The RGW organized both of these companies to be owned by RGW stockholders, but out of the control of RGW bondholders. The Panic of 1893 stopped new construction until 1896, when

1488-828: The Sanpete Valley to Salina in the Sevier Valley . There it would split, one line continuing south to the Arizona state line, and the other turning east through Salina Canyon and across the Castle Valley to the Grand (Colorado) River , following it to meet the westward-building D&RG at the Colorado border. To counter this threat to its monopoly, the Union Pacific set up the Utah Southern and Castle Valley Railroad less than two weeks later to extend its Utah Southern through Salina Canyon to

1550-408: The U.S. state of Utah . As of the 2020 United States Census , the population was 28,437. Its county seat is Manti , and its largest city is Ephraim . The county was created in 1850. The Sanpete Valley may have been traversed or inhabited as long as 32,000 BP by small bands of hunters. This habitation may have continued for about 20,000 years when the extinction of larger game animals forced

1612-679: The Utah Valley from Springville to the larger city of Provo, which closely paralleled the Utah Southern, opened in October 1880. Investor Charles W. Scofield of New York , who was already in control of two other narrow gauge mining roads - the Bingham Canyon and Camp Floyd Rail Road since 1873 and the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad since 1875 - acquired the U&;PV in October 1878. The U&PV began at

1674-547: The Works Project Administration , is on the National Register of Historic Places . The Sanpete Valley runs from north to south through the center of the county. The county is sloped to the south, with its highest point east of Ephraim, on South Tent Mountain at 11,285 ft (3,440 m) ASL. The county has a total area of 1,603 square miles (4,150 km ), of which 1,590 square miles (4,100 km )

1736-594: The coal mines in the Pleasant Valley to Provo on the Union Pacific Railroad -controlled Utah Southern Railroad . The company was incorporated on December 11, 1875, under the general laws of Utah by owners of land in the valley. The company began grading in April 1877 and track laying on August 29, 1878, driving the last spike between Pleasant Valley and Springville on November 5, 1879. The short distance in

1798-640: The Castle Valley. In another week, when UP workers reached the canyon, the Sevier Valley had already begun grading. On May 26, 1881, D&RG interests incorporated the Salt Lake and Park City Railway , a branch from Salt Lake City east to Park City and Coalville . The lines of this company and the Sevier Valley were included in the far-reaching charter for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway , incorporated on July 21, 1881 and immediately consolidated with

1860-522: The D&RG track to Grand Junction in December 1889 and subsequently widened its gauge. The Rio Grande Junction Railway , owned jointly by the D&RG and Midland, was completed to Grand Junction on November 15, 1890, and through service began the next day over the RGW and both eastern roads, the D&RG having completed its standard gauge line over Tennessee Pass . All branches were also converted, except for short 3 ft ( 914 mm ) gauge sections at

1922-428: The RGW added a second track to the steep 4% grade to Tucker on the west side of Soldier Summit . The shallower east-side grade was similarly doubled to Colton in 1906, and further to Kyune and from Castle Gate to Helper in 1909. Construction began on a new low-grade line west of the summit in 1912, when the D&RG added a track between Detour (the west end of the realignment) and Thistle . The new line, with

Utah Division (D&RGW) - Misplaced Pages Continue

1984-553: The Sevier Railway was extended farther south to Belknap . The Ballard & Thompson Railroad between Thompson Springs and Sego was purchased in 1913 by the D&RGW and became the Sego Branch. The Rio Grande obtained control of the narrow gauge Wasatch & Jordan Valley Railway in 1881 which had been built up Little Cottonwood Canyon . Portions of the line would be standard gauged as far as Wasatch station by 1913. Wasatch to

2046-408: The U&PV's property on June 14, 1882, and at about that time began operating trains between Salt Lake City and Pleasant Valley, using new trackage north of Provo. The D&RG of Colorado leased the D&RGW of Utah on August 1, allowing the former to operate the latter for a payment of 40% of gross receipts. The difficult double switchback on the original U&PV was bypassed by a new connection to

2108-758: The UP's. The majority of the ex-D&RGW north of Salt Lake City is now the Denver & Rio Grande Western Rail Trail , while the UP has sold its Sharp Subdivision north of Provo to the Utah Transit Authority , which operates the TRAX Blue Line ( light rail ) along the corridor, as well as contracts with the Salt Lake City Southern Railroad for freight. A long branch was begun in 1890 as 3 ft ( 914 mm ) gauge and widened in 1891, extending south from Thistle up Thistle Creek and down

2170-563: The Utah Coal Railway). U.S. Smelting objected to the D&RG's charging of higher freight rates due to the mines' location on a branch line , and began to build its own line over Soldier Summit into the Utah Valley . The two companies reached an agreement in November 1913, where the D&RG would operate the Utah Railway between a junction near Castle Gate and the mines, and the unfinished line between Thistle and Provo would be completed as

2232-483: The age of 18, 15,846 (55.7%) from 18 to 64, and 4,588 (16.1%) who were at least 65 years old. The median age was 33.7 years. There were 8,394 households in Sanpete County with an average size of 3.39 of which 6,459 (76.9%) were families and 1,935 (23.1%) were non-families. Among all families, 5,387 (64.2%) were married couples , 389 (4.6%) were male householders with no spouse, and 683 (8.1%) were female householders with no spouse. Among all non-families, 1,610 (19.2%) were

2294-401: The branch to Park City through Parley's Canyon that had been chartered in 1881. The RGW teamed up with the Colorado and Southern Railway , which had recently been split from the bankrupt Union Pacific Railroad , and stretched north–south from Wyoming through eastern Colorado into Texas , to jointly buy control of the connecting Colorado Midland Railway . RGW stock prices rose, delaying

2356-515: The company having been released from receivership. Now independent, the D&RGW looked to the east, where the standard gauge Colorado Midland Railway was building west from Colorado Springs with the intent of entering Utah. Palmer realized that if he did not widen his gauge and cooperate with the Midland, he might soon have new competition. To raise the money to convert the line, which would require about 100 miles (160 km) of new railroad where

2418-707: The company to Gould, and Gould management, including new president Edward Turner Jeffery , took over on July 1, 1901. In 1901, the Union Pacific Railroad gained control of the Southern Pacific Railroad , which owned the Central Pacific Railway , the portion of the First transcontinental railroad west of Ogden. Searching for another route to the Pacific, Gould incorporated the Castle Valley Railway as

2480-465: The ends of the lines into Bingham and Little Cottonwood Canyons. For the next ten years, the RGW operated as an independent standard gauge bridge line connecting Grand Junction to Salt Lake City and Ogden, with branches to sources of valuable minerals. Through its new subsidiary, the Utah Central Railroad, the RGW acquired several Salt Lake City-area lines in 1898, finally adding to its system

2542-533: The existing grade was too steep or curvy, he incorporated a new Rio Grande Western Railway . (Palmer had initially proposed the name "Utah and Colorado Railway" for the new company.) The State Line and Denver Railway was incorporated May 16, 1889 with the power to build east to Glenwood Springs, Colorado , then the terminus of the Midland. That same day, it was consolidated with the old Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway, with articles of incorporation filed in both states on June 24. Construction began immediately,

Utah Division (D&RGW) - Misplaced Pages Continue

2604-581: The first inhabitants of the area to domesticate crops and create relatively large communal settlements. In this county, the best-known Fremont site to date is "Witch's Knoll" three miles (4.8 km) SE of Ephraim. Around 1300 AD the evidence of Fremont habitation also ceases. The most recent groups of indigenous Americans in the Sanpete region are the Ute , Paiute , Goshute , and Shoshoni , who appeared in Utah about 1300 and "perhaps they displaced, replaced, or assimilated

2666-450: The first settlement in the valley was established on the present site of Manti, Utah . The State of Deseret enacted the county effective January 31, 1850. The region was named for the Ute chief Sanpitch , which was changed to Sanpete. According to William Bright , the name comes from the Ute word saimpitsi , meaning "people of the tules ". The county boundaries were adjusted more than

2728-562: The later D&RGW, at Tucker . The remainder of the U&PV is now, for the most part, still operated, as it follows Spanish Fork Canyon into the Utah Valley. Associates of Palmer incorporated the Sevier Valley Railway in Utah on December 7, 1880, with a route paralleling the Union Pacific's lines from the railroad center of Ogden south through Salt Lake City and Provo to Nephi , and then continuing through Salt Creek Canyon and

2790-464: The latter's name, the D&RGW became part of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1996. With the level of the Great Salt Lake rising in the mid-1980s, the D&RGW and UP came to a trackage rights agreement, where the D&RGW would use the UP's higher line between Salt Lake City and Ogden, and in exchange the UP could use the D&RGW between Salt Lake City and Provo, a better-designed route than

2852-506: The line being converted from Ogden to Salt Lake City by mid-November 1889, to Provo on March 7, 1890, and the rest of the way to Grand Junction on June 10. The line was completely relocated out of the canyon of the Price River from Grassy Trail to Woodside , and into the Ruby Canyon of the Grand (Colorado) River from Whitehouse to Crevasse, Colorado . Beyond Crevasse, the RGW leased

2914-466: The line down into the Utah Valley , with some 4% grades near the top before it met the earlier U&PV at Tucker . Through the Utah Valley and adjacent Salt Lake Valley , connected by the Jordan Narrows , the D&RGW's line closely paralleled a UP line, serving many of the valleys' populated areas. The final stretch generally followed the Great Salt Lake 's shore to Ogden , where it connected to

2976-498: The line's terminus at Alta, Utah would remain narrow gauge, the Rio Grande's last narrow gauge in the state of Utah. Rather than operating the line themselves the Rio Grande would lease it to various operators such as the horse-drawn Alta Tramway and later the Shay locomotive powered Little Cottonwood Transportation Company until 1922. Postal service and passenger service on the narrow gauge

3038-509: The others. Palmer knew that it would be important to first complete the line to Ogden, where the Central Pacific Railroad extended west to California . It was rumored as early as April 1881 that the D&RG had gained control of the U&PV and would bypass Salina Canyon, instead using a shorter route northwesterly from Castle Valley to a connection with that road, and Palmer confirmed this in September. (The original grading through Castle Valley

3100-549: The part-time Fremont hunter-gatherers." The Utes, Paiutes, Goshute and Shoshone share a common language family called Numic . Mormon pioneers arrived in the Great Basin in the summer of 1847. The first few years were spent establishing a base in the Great Salt Lake Valley, then groups were sent, usually by the directive of the church leaders, to settle the more outlying areas. In 1849 two Ute chiefs traveled from what

3162-401: The racial makeup was 23,688 (83.3%) White , 224 (0.8%) African American , 240 (0.8%) Native American , 171 (0.6%) Asian , 247 (0.9%) Pacific Islander , 81 (0.3%) from other races , and 743 (2.6%) from two or more races . 3,043 (10.7%) people were Hispanic or Latino. There were 15,266 (53.68%) males and 13,171 (46.32%) females, and the population distribution by age was 8,003 (28.1%) under

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3224-624: The railroad had to be removed from the canyon between Grassy Trail (south of Cedar ) and Farnham (southeast of Wellington ), though it remained alongside the river from Grassy Trail southeast to Woodside until bypassed by the present standard gauge alignment. Continuing on, the line passed through the Price Canyon , including the Castle Gate rock formation, as it rose to the top of the Wasatch Range at Soldier Summit . The Spanish Fork Canyon took

3286-636: The remaining Sandy branch would occur in 1965. In the future, a new rail line into the Uintah Basin , currently under study by the state of Utah, may be constructed, branching off the existing line near Soldier Summit . This is a list of presidents (and equivalents) of the Utah company before it was merged into the D&RG in 1908. For post-1908 presidents, see Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Presidents . [REDACTED] Media related to Utah Division (D&RGW) at Wikimedia Commons 3 ft gauge railways Three foot gauge railways have

3348-435: The revenues of the MP, D&RG, and RGW, leaving very little for maintenance, let alone improvements. The D&RG and RGW, operated as a single system since 1901, were merged as the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad on July 31, 1908, finally combining the two halves of the Denver-Ogden line into one railroad company. Improvement of the standard gauge main line through Utah to relieve congestion had begun in 1898, when

3410-419: The under-construction D&RGW at Colton on November 23, 1882, as well as the new line from Colton over Soldier Summit to Tucker . D&RG and D&RGW crews met at a point now known as Desert , 14 miles (23 km) west of Green River , on March 30, 1883, and trains began running between Denver and Salt Lake City several days later. (Although the D&RG built the line from the state line to Desert, it

3472-519: The valley of the Grand (Colorado) River west out of Grand Junction, but curved away at Mack to avoid Ruby Canyon . Some steep grades and sharp curves carried the original line over the highlands north of the river, crossing the state line and continuing southwesterly and westerly to Green River, Utah . Curving northwest around the Beckwith Plateau , the railroad crossed the Price River at Woodside , where it began to follow that river through its valleys and canyons. Almost immediately, due to flooding,

3534-469: The western boundary of the county. The San Pitch River runs from north to south through Sanpete and empties into the Sevier River in southwestern Sanpete. This portion of the Sevier River Valley is known as Gunnison Valley. According to the 2020 United States census and 2020 American Community Survey , there were 28,437 people in Sanpete County with a population density of 17.9 people per square mile (6.9/km ). Among non- Hispanic or Latino people,

3596-430: Was $ 51,250 and for females $ 32,833. 14.8% of the population and 9.3% of families were below the poverty line . In terms of education attainment, out of the 18,205 people in Sanpete County 25 years or older, 1,465 (8.0%) had not completed high school , 5,758 (31.6%) had a high school diploma or equivalency, 7,205 (39.6%) had some college or associate degree , 2,541 (14.0%) had a bachelor's degree , and 1,236 (6.8%) had

3658-410: Was completed in 1910, but its construction had given the D&RG enormous debts. After periods of ownership by Eastern U.S. bankers, the courts appointed two local trustees in 1935. The system was slowly rebuilt into a profitable enterprise, and in 1947 it was reorganized as the * Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad . After buying the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1988 and adopting

3720-430: Was never used for a railroad, although in the 1910s it was briefly part of the Midland Trail , now US-6 .) The D&RGW bought the assets of the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad, which had merged with the Bingham Canon and Camp Floyd Rail Road, at foreclosure on December 31, 1881, adding to its system two profitable branches from Midvale to Bingham and Little Cottonwood Canyons . The D&RGW similarly acquired

3782-408: Was owned by the D&RGW.) Final completion to Ogden in May was delayed for several days by the Union Pacific's refusal to let the D&RGW cross, but on May 19 the D&RGW was complete. Palmer soon resigned as D&RG president, since the directors were opposed to further expansion, but remained in control of the leased D&RGW. With the line into Utah complete, the D&RG system consisted of

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3844-420: Was provided from 1922 to 1928 by a "jitney" service operated by Elbert Despain on an automobile converted for rail service. Following the end of jitney service, the Rio Grande abandoned access to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon in 1933 along with the narrow gauge route up the canyon. Segments of Utah State Route 210 follow the former railroad grade up the canyon. Full abandonment of the surviving segments of

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