Foundations: "These mountains look too ugly and I see too much work ahead": building the Southern Pacific Company, 1850/1930; Men of vision: Southern Pacific leaders, land, agriculture, and the development of California and the West
Land settlement: "Stand on the rights of the Company and make a square fight of it": land-grant myths, conflicts with government, and squatterism; The Mussel Slough affair; A land of "well-tilled little farms": land-grant development; Promoting the far West: 1860s-1900s
Water: "The satisfactory supply is yet undiscovered": the Southern Pacific as a pioneer water developer; "A great encouragement for others": private irrigation; "This splendid country is to be reclaimed": public irrigation; "The government is hard to deal with": federal reclamation
Agriculture: "Evangel train": scientific agriculture; "The damndest railroading you ever heard of": marketing the produce of western farms
Conservation: "Shall this destruction proceed?": wilderness preservation; "Putting our properties on the most conservative and scientific basis": resource conservation
Epilogue
A note on Southern Pacific Company manuscript sources.