CP-18 Monument Construction Camp

    CP-18 Monument Construction Camp

    Last Mortified:

    • Established: 1869, by Central Pacific Railroad as a temporary construction camp, during construction of original transcontinental railroad
    • Origin of Name: Named for the stone monument erected at the site where the rails met
    • Alternative Name: The reporter from the Alta Californian referred to the area as Parker’s Camp, for reasons now unknown
    • Miles from San Francisco: 748.6
    • Used by Railroad: 1869- 1942
    • Railroad Function: Site of the famous photograph, showing Leland Standford’s personal train passing the “last wagon train heading west;” had a railroad siding and spur (the spur was known as “Monument, and a rail ”wye’; home of Desert Salt Works; the siding provided freighting facilities to local sheep ranchers
    • Known for: “The Rabbit Hunting Capital of the World;” Morgan, UT-based Browning Arms Company held a rabbit hunt there, and in one day more than 8,000 rabbits were killed there
    • Location: The northernmost point of the Transcontinental Railroad in Box Elder County, just east of Monument Point, seven miles east of Seco
    • No Population estimates for this isolated northern Utah rail siding