By Len Stagoski
Here is a bit of trivia, but it’s historically significant trivia.
Missouri supplied a very significant number of the railroad ties used in the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.
“As the Civil War drew to a close, everything was in place for the railroads to prosper. Advancements in railroad equipment made this new mode of transportation feasible on a large scale.
“A route for the Transcontinental Railroad had been chosen. At hand was the task of amassing the resources and manpower to lay the track. Three thousand railroad ties were needed for every mile of track.
“This required massive numbers of trees and the means to move large quantities of cut ties from forest to market.” (Ref. Voices of Missouri’s Rivers, Conservation Commission of the State of Missouri, 2014, p. 33)
