Summary: The story of America’s transcontinental railroad is a masculine saga. But today we present the story of Union Pacific’s most unlikely employee: a 12-year-old Mormon girl. Mary Peterson Ipsen was a railroad cook. An immigrant from Denmark, she had walked across the plains to Utah territory as a child, and grew up in an extremely godly community isolated from the rest of the world. But when her father died and she had to find work, she rejoined the world in, of all places, the most hellish of “Hell-on-Wheels” towns: Jack Casement’s Union Pacific crew. To commemorate the Sesquicentennial of Golden Spike, experience America’s transcontinental railroad through a 12-year-old’s eyes, featuring archival recordings of railroad songs, train whistles, newspapers and more.
