Thousand Mile Tree, Pine tree beside a railroad in Weber Canyon, Utah, United States
The Thousand Mile Tree is a pine growing near the Union Pacific Railroad tracks within Weber Canyon, marking a historically significant distance point along the transcontinental route. The site sits in a narrow canyon where steep rock walls frame both the railroad line and the highway that run side by side.
In January 1869, railroad workers identified this spot as exactly one thousand miles west of the eastern terminus in Omaha during transcontinental railroad construction. The distance measurement was recorded as workers surveyed the route westward.
The tree became a landmark that passengers on early Union Pacific trains looked for, and excursion trains from Ogden ran in summer to see it, Devil's Slide and Wilhelmina's Pass. Travel accounts from the 1870s often mentioned it, and some claimed it was the only pine between Omaha and Salt Lake. Photographers A. J. Russell and Eadweard Muybridge both made images of the tree.
The tree stands on the strip between the Union Pacific tracks and the Weber River, about six kilometres north of Henefer near the Summit–Morgan county line. Interstate 84 runs through the canyon past the site; the replacement pine is protected by a wire fence. The line is active, so view it from the road or fence rather than crossing the tracks.
The original pine, about 27 metres tall, died by 1900 and was removed that September; Union Pacific planted the present tree in 1982. Because the line was later rerouted, the replacement stands at mile 959.66 from Omaha rather than at the original thousand-mile mark.
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