Foundations: "These mountains look too ugly and I see too much work ahead" : building the Southern Pacific Company, 1850/1930; Men of vision : Southern Pacific leaders, land, agriculture, and the development of California and the West -- Land settlement: "Stand on the rights of the Company and make a square fight of it" : land-grant myths, conflicts with government, and squatterism; The Mussel Slough affair; A land of "well-tilled little farms" : land-grant development; Promoting the far West, 1860s-1900s -- Water: "The satisfactory supply is yet undiscovered" : the Southern Pacific as a pioneer water developer; "A great encouragement for others" : private irrigation; "This splendid country is to be reclaimed" : public irrigation; "The government is hard to deal with" : federal reclamation -- Agriculture: "Evangel train" : scientific agriculture; "The damndest railroading you ever heard of" : marketing the produce of western farms -- Conservation: "Shall this destruction proceed?" : wilderness preservation; "Putting our properties on the most conservative and scientific basis" : resource conservation -- Epilogue -- A note on Southern Pacific Company manuscript sources.