Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/276

238 from the panic of 1837, gold had been discovered in California and business conditions generally were good.

It was during this period that the trunk lines were completed uniting the Middle West with the Atlantic Seaboard by rail. During this period the small lines were conoslidated into larger lines and railway systems were being formed. Then came the panic of 1857 from which the country did not recover before the Civil War broke out and stopped for the time being further railroad construction.

With the resumption of peace however railroad building went on at an unprecedented rate. Congress had during the war chartered the Union Pacific and Central Pacific companies and given grants, so during the period of the beginning of the Oregon and California Railroad, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads were being rushed to completion and were finally completed in 1869. In California the expositions of Theodore Dehone Judah for the Central Pacific Railroad had created a railroad fever so by this time several small roads had been built in the southern part of the state. Oregon as we have before stated was without and but a short portage road. This was the situation when the history of the Oregon and California Realroad Company began. With this summary of railroads prior to 1863 we turn our attention to tracing the history of that road.