"An Act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes,"; Act of July 1, 1862, Statutes at Large 12 (1863): 489.
Klein, Union Pacific, 22-67
Klein, Union Pacific, 31.
Public Aids to Transportation, vol. 2, Aids to Railroads and Related Subjects (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1938), table 2, p. 15.
Here I have followed the argument of Horace White, an attorney for the bondholders of the Kansas Pacific.
"Arguments of Horace White... House Committee on the Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad Discriminations," 45th Congress, 2nd session, 1878, 1-3, copy in C.B. & Q, 63, 1870, 6.8, Pacific Railroad File, no. 29.
Report to the Stockholders of the Union Pacific Railroad, for the Year 1875 (Boston, 1876), 37.
"An Act to Authorize the Commisioners of Her Majesty's Treasury to Guarantee the Payment of a Loan...21 July 1873," in Correspondence respecting the Canadian Pacific Railroad Act So Far As Regards British Columbia (London: Harrison and Sons, 1875), 98-99.
The western roads received the following amounts from the states: Nebraska, 498,742; Texas 32,990,000; Oregon, 3,200; Minnesota, 2,875,856.
"Report of the Auditor of Railroad Accounts," House Ex. Doc. 1, 46th Congress, 2nd Session, 1911, Table 13, 113-15.
Eventually around 35 million acres were returned, and in addition the railroads relinquished an additional 8 million acres in 1940 in exchange for the government canceling preferential reduced rates it was entitled to receive. This created interesting geographies of land whose title was in limbo for years as railroad claims and ownership were sorted out.