Kansas Pacific Railway

The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century.

Although the railroad had intended originally to build only as far west as Fort Riley, citizens in Denver in the Colorado Territory, eager to be connected to the national network, lobbied furiously to extend the Union Pacific lines to reach their city.

No funds were granted for the construction, however, a situation made more dire by the general collapse in railroad investments following the end of the American Civil War.

By March 1870, the westward line had reached Kit Carson, Colorado, and the company began to build eastward from Denver.

On August 15, 1870, the two KP branches met on the Colorado Eastern Plains at Comanche Crossing, which was renamed Strasburg in honor of an engineer of the Kansas Pacific.

The Strasburg "joining of the rails" of the Kansas Pacific on August 15, 1870, actually marked the completion of a true coast-to-coast railway network in the United States.

The company's intention to extend the old Kansas Pacific mainline through the Rockies was strengthened by renewed competition from its archrival, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy.

The struggle to build the railway against the backdrop of the American Civil War was depicted in the 1953 western movie Kansas Pacific, starring Sterling Hayden and Eve Miller.

The Kansas Pacific main line shown on an 1869 map. The thickened portion along the line indicates the extent of the land grants available to settlers. At the time of the map, the line extended only as far as western Kansas (section in green). The extension to the Colorado Territory (section in red) was completed the following year
Roundhouse, Kansas Pacific Railway, 1873.
A 1878 map shows principal cities and towns along the railroad.