Near Site, Southern Pacific Ceremony of Silver Spike
Del Rio, Val Verde County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Marked completion of Southern Pacific Railway. Eastern part originated in Texas in 1850s; then was rechartered 1870 by Texas Legislature as Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Hwy., designed to join Houston and San Antonio to the Rio Grande. T. W. Pierce of Boston gained control in 1874. Meantime, C. P. Huntington of California was building the Southern Pacific eastward; he wanted a Texas line to join his tracks, and reached agreement with Pierce. On Jan. 12, 1883, the two railroads met near the Pecos High Bridge, and were joined by a Silver Spike. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On January 12, 1883, near the Pecos High Bridge, two great railroads met and were joined by a silver spike, completing a transcontinental line across the Southwest. The eastern portion had begun in 1850s Texas and was rechartered in 1870 to link Houston and San Antonio to the Rio Grande, while C.P. Huntington drove the Southern Pacific eastward from California. When Huntington and Texas magnate T.W. Pierce reached agreement, their tracks closed the gap.
Why it matters
The silver spike marked the second transcontinental rail link across America, binding the Texas frontier into a national network of commerce and travel.
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Related people
- · T. W. Pierce
- · C. P. Huntington
Related events
- · Silver Spike ceremony
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Comstock
Comstock, TX
Comstock sprang up in the early 1880s as a watering stop on the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway, taking advantage of a natural lake in the arid country west of the Pecos. Named for a railroad dispatcher, it replaced the earlier settlement of Sotol City and grew into a busy hub of the wool and lamb trade, even sheltering Texas Rangers for a time. After World War II, new technology and shifting economies thinned its population.
Pumpville
Langtry, TX
When the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway pushed a line through this arid stretch of West Texas in 1882, its steam engines needed water, so the company built a pumphouse and depot that gave rise to a small community—first called Samuels, then Pumpville. Residents worked the rails or the surrounding ranches, which used the stop to ship livestock to distant markets. When diesel locomotives made the water stops obsolete, the railroad hauled away its buildings, and only the ranching families remained.
Site of Vinegarroon
Langtry, TX
In 1882 the Southern Pacific faced its last great barrier—the Pecos River canyon—on the transcontinental line linking New Orleans and San Francisco. Beside the excavation of Tunnel No. 2 rose Vinegarroon, a rough camp named for a local scorpion and home to thousands of mostly Chinese laborers. Roy Bean ran a saloon and served as justice of the peace here until the rails were joined in 1883 and the camp was abandoned.
The Pecos River in Literature and Folklore
Langtry, TX
Rising in the mountains of northern New Mexico and cutting through some of the harshest country in Texas on its way to the Rio Grande, the Pecos River became a boundary in more ways than one. To 19th-century travelers it marked the edge of the tame world—"west of the Pecos" meant a land of flash floods, mineral-heavy water, and hard-bitten reputations. Writers and folklorists from J. Frank Dobie to Zane Grey turned that reputation into legend, and the country gave rise to figures both real, like Judge Roy Bean, and mythical, like Pecos Bill.