Lathrop Hills

On June 11, 1867, Lathrop Hills led a party of surveyors up nearby Lodgepole Creek to stake out the route of the Union Pacific Railroad, the first transcontinental railroad. Riding ahead of the group, he was attacked by Indians and killed, and his men drove them off within minutes and later reported finding 19 arrow wounds in his body. He was 35. By November 14, 1867, tracklayers had reached Cheyenne, and 18 months later a golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, completing the first railroad connection between the East and West, opening millions of acres for settlement, and reducing travel time from the six months required by wagon train to five days from Omaha to San Francisco.

Hillsdale, Wyoming · United States