Seco

Seco, at mile 743 from San Francisco, became a section station in 1873 when facilities were moved from Ten-Mile, another section station three-and-a-half miles east. Its work crews and inhabitants were mainly Chinese, and although no official figures were available, about 25 people appear to have lived there at one time. The Central Pacific Railroad began laying track east from Sacramento in 1863 and reached western Utah in March 1869 after a project that required more than 10,000 workers moving east across the desert. Most of those workers were Chinese, joined by Irish laborers and local settlers. After completion of the railroad, Chinese section gangs performed maintenance and improvements to counter erosion and deterioration. They were organized into groups of 30 men, each receiving monthly wages amounting to a little over a dollar a day, and worked from sunrise to sunset, six days a week. Broken pottery and other artifacts left by Chinese and other railroad workers have provided information about the dates of occupation and a glimpse into the lives of the early inhabitants.

Utah · United States