Most students of Utah railroad history are aware of the inhospitable conditions experienced by the railroad engineers who risked life and limb to shorten the railway route across the Great Salt Lake at the end of the nineteenth century. The Southern Pacific Railroad successfully completed a trestle bridge across the lake, which became known as the Lucin Cutoff, in 1904, allowing for the safe passage of cargo and travelers for more than forty-five years.
Yet few railroad historians are aware of an investigation to cross the northeastern bay of the lake—as a shortcut—during the transcontinental railroad survey in July 1868, more than thirty-five years before it was successfully achieved by the Lucin Cutoff. A firsthand account of the Union Pacific (UP) Railroad's first attempt to locate a route past (and possibly across) the lake was recounted by a person involved. A surveying party made up of thirteen men, headed by...
