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Lathrop Hills, Surveyor for the First Transcontinental Railroad, Killed by Indians
South of the post office in Hillside
On June 11, 1867, Lathrop Hills led a party of surveyors up the nearby Lodgepole Creek, staking out the location for the Union Pacific Railroad, the first transcontinental railroad. Hills was riding out in front of the group when he was attacked by Indians and killed. Within minutes his men drove off the Indians and later reported they found 19 arrow wounds in his body. He was 35.

Hills’ work lived after him. By November 14, 1867, the track layers had reached Cheyenne and 18 months later a golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, completing the first railroad connection between the East and West and opening millions of acres for settlement. The railroad reduced travel time from six months required by wagon train to five days from Omaha to San Francisco.

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