The Transcontinental Railroad changed the American West by enabling travel and cargo shipments all across the country. Even as it was being built, it was settling the West. As railroad crews inched along building the tracks, far away from the comforts of the east, entrepreneurs traveled with them to provide services and profit from the worker's pay. The temporary camps they set up along the way were called Hell on Wheels.
“The history of any one of these places is the history of them all … It was entirely formed of large tents. Every other tent was either a gambling den, or a ‘drinking saloon,’ or a dancing hall – with adjoining chambers that go down to hell. There were sixty woman in the town, not one of them virtuous, all of them belonging to the vilest grade of criminal life.
Every night in the large tents (they are a hundred feet long by sixty wide) there are lewd dances, and drinking and gambling, and every variety of obscene and criminal indulgences. Every man goes armed; every man and every woman drinks; every one of both sexes gambles, and, of course, fights, are frequent and murders not uncommon.”
This is not news to those who followeed the television series Hell on Wheels. However, any time the encampment lasted for some time, say, several months, there would be some who decided to stay put. This meant the beginning of a permanent town, or even a city, many of which still exist today. Read about the temporary towns of the Transcontinental Railroad and the settlements they left behind at Geri Walton's blog. -via Strange Company
