tamrock
Platinum Member
- #1
Thread Owner
Yesterday I went to see a rock quarry that supplies much of the ballast rock for the railroads. My middle daughter was off work, so she went along for the ride and we made a great day trip out of visiting registry rock and checking out the old wagon wheel ruts of the overland trail, which was the super highway of the time for travelers heading west during the 19th century with their dreams of building a life on the fertile soil of the Willamette Valley in Oregon, finding as much gold as you can in California or joining with your fellow brotheren in the Salt Lake Valley. We went to the old fort Laramie also, which for the time was a state of the art military post there to protect these pioneers. Much of the buildings were constructed with per Portland cement Lime Grout. It was connected to the nation in the east by the Transcontinental telegraph line and the armaments on hand included, Hotchkiss guns, Howitzer and Gatling guns. There were also many amenities to keep the pioneers geared up for the road ahead with tack supplies, a commentary offering non perishable foods, black smiths and a steam engines to pump water and mill lumber. There was for the time a modern hospital on the hill constructed of Lime Grout. After the Transcontinental Railroad was finished in 1869 the old fort began to decline, but remained into the 1870s to protect the gold miners from the hostile Indians who were making their way to the Black Hills. The old Iron bridge was layed over the Plate River in 1875 in order to dispatch troops quickly to the Dakota territory. I'm sure the disaster that took place the year before on the Little Bighorn to the north had some influence for the need of this bridge to haul all those troops and heavy weaponry quickly incase of any major uprisings.
