APPENDIX A 



tained little, if any, good land. This conviction was 

 gradually changed to admit that considerable valuable 

 land could be found as far as one hundred miles west of 

 the river. Moreover, they at first disbelieved in the 

 possibility of bridging the river below Rock Island. 

 Their engineers said that the Rock Island road could, 

 of course, bridge the river if it thought best, because 

 it had an island to build to and to build from; but 

 they urged that to attempt bridging the river without 

 an island was a desperate undertaking and would prob- 

 ably end in failure. 



When these prejudices broke down, and it was seen 

 that Iowa was fertile far to the west, there was an- 

 other considerable period during which Des Moines 

 was set as the western limit of good land. With this 

 idea in view, a project was set on foot and long cher- 

 ished to round up the Burlington, the Rock Island, and 

 the Northwestern, all at Des Moines, in the belief that 

 no more than one line would ever be called for west 

 of that point. Such a scheme was later carried out 

 when the Union Pacific was built, the three roads 

 named, and subsequently several others, being made to 

 unite at the Union Pacific junction in Council Bluffs. 



Like incredulity touching the value of the country 

 beyond marked men's temper when they began to con- 

 sider the question of crossing the Missouri. Charles 

 F. Perkins, who had been president of the Burlington, 

 once informed the writer that his first report to the 

 directors urging the extension of the road from the 

 Missouri River to Lincoln was received with the grav- 

 est shaking of heads. For a time few or none believed 



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