Resolution No. 2828RESOLUTION NO. 2828
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CYPRESS
RECOGNIZING AND COMMENDING THE CHINESE RAILROAD
BUILDING PIONEERS
WHEREAS, in 1865, the Central Pacific Railroad, headed by "Big Four" (Collis
Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker) started to hire Chinese
railroad builders to construct the western portion of the first trans -continental railroad.
Eventually 15,000 were hired, nine -tenths of the total work f orce; and
WHEREAS, Chinese crews tackled the most formidable tasks: they drilled the ten
Summit Tunnels between Cisco and Lake Ridge during the winter of 1865-1866, one of the
severest on record. Hundreds of them perished from accidents and avalanches; and
WHEREAS, many lost their lives blasting granite mountainsides or braving bitter cold
in the rugged Sierra and scorching sun across the deserts of Nevada and Utah; and
WHEREAS, it is known that the remains of 1,200 men were shipped home to China
during these railroad building years, but no one has recorded the names of the Chinese who
gave their lives in the building of the railroads; and
WHEREAS, working with skill, discipline, self-sacrifice and devotion, the Chinese
hastened the early completion of the Union Pacific long before the deadline required by the
Act of Congress; and
WHEREAS, the Central Pacific mainly Chinese crews built 1,800 miles of railroad
through the Sierra and Rocky Mountains, desert and plain; the Union Pacific built 689 miles
over much easier terrain. John Galloway, the noted transportation engineer, described the
Central Pacific as "without a doubt the greatest engineering feat of the nineteenth century";
and
WHEREAS, on May 10, 1869, when the two lines were officially joined at Promontory
in Utah and Stanford drove a golden spike into the last tie, no Chinese appear in that famous
picture celebrating the joining of the rails; and
WHEREAS, the Chinese railroad building pioneers worked on other trans -continental
lines and railways that were being swiftly constructed in the West and Mid -West and by 1893,
this country had five trans -continental lines; and
WHEREAS, the lines on which these men worked "more than any other factor helped
make the United States a united nation"; and
WHEREAS, the Chinese-American Historical and Cultural Council of the Bowers
Museum Foundation will honor the Chinese pioneer railroad builders of the West on October
13, 1984.
NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Cypress DOES HEREBY
RESOLVE and hereby recognizes the important contribution and sacrifice of the Chinese
railroad builders and join in commending them as a group of pioneers who played a major role
in building the network of railroads that was the transport base of America's industrial might
in the twentieth century.
PASSED AND ADOPTED by the City Council of the City of Cypress at a regular
meeting held on the 27th day of August 1984.
ATTEST:
CITY CLERK-en
CITY CYPRESS
/!
MAYOR OF THE CITY OF CYPRESS
93
94
STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF ORANGE ) SS
I, DARRELL ESSEX, City Clerk of the City of Cypress, DO HEREBY CERTIFY that
the foregoing Resolution was duly adopted at a regular meeting of the said City Council held
on the 27th day of August 1984; by the following roll call vote:
AYES: 5 COUNCIL MEMBERS: Coronado, Kanel, Laceyo, Mullen, and Partin
NOES: 0 COUNCIL MEMBERS: None
ABSENT: 0 COUNCIL MEMBERS: None
C`1'IrY CL F T CITY OF CYPRESS