Hell on Wheels: Information from Answers.com
Tough, aggressive, wild, or mean, as in Watch out for the boss--he's hell on wheels this week. This expression originated with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1860s, when it denoted the last town on the line, which was carried on freight cars as the track was extended. The town consisted mainly of tents occupied by construction gangs, liquor dealers, gamblers, and other camp followers known for their rough and often vicious ways.
"Hell on Wheels," a term applied to the temporary rails-end towns, or construction camps, of the Union Pacific Railroad. Construction westward along the 42d parallel began in 1865, laying a record-setting average of over a mile of track a day using only picks, shovels, and mules. The term reflected the rough work camps of the all-male, largely Irish laborers, who fought, drank, and caused general hell along the rail as they progressed westward over the prairie and through the mountains.
Bibliography
Bain, David Haward. Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad. New York: Viking, 1999.
Williams, John Hoyt. A Great & Shining Road: The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroad. New York: Times Books, 1988.
The phrase "Hell on Wheels" was originally used to describe the itinerant collection of flimsily assembled gambling houses, dance halls, saloons, and brothels that followed the army of Union Pacific railroad workers westward as they constructed the American transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. The followers were called "hangers-on" according to Samuel Bowles.
The huge numbers of wage-earning young men working in what was a remote wilderness, far from the constraints of home, proved to be a lucrative opportunity for those with expertise at separating such men from their money.
One early documentation of the term "Hell on Wheels" being used to describe the phenomenon was by Springfield, Massachusetts Republican newspaper editor Samuel Bowles.
The phenomenon is documented as far east as North Platte, Nebraska. As the end of the line continually moved westward, Hell on Wheels followed along, reconstructing itself on the outskirts of each town that became in turn the center of activity for the Union Pacific's construction work.
All manner of criminal activity was rampant in Hell on Wheels, with murders occurring on an almost nightly basis. Frequently, the more respectable element of a town temporarily hosting Hell on Wheels became fed up with the crime and organized to combat it. For example, in Laramie, Wyoming, a conflict between town vigilantes and a Hell on Wheels criminal gang culminated in a protracted street battle.
An idealized image of Hell on Wheels is present in 1924 John Ford's silent film The Iron Horse.
Sources
- Stephen E Ambrose (2000). Nothing like it in the world : the men who built the transcontinental railroad, 1863-1869. Simon & Schuster, Inc.. ISBN 0-7432-0317-8.
- Samuel Bowles (1869). Our new West. Hartford, Ct.: Hartford Pub. Co. ; New York: J.D. Dennison, page 56. OCLC 1627933. at US Library of Congress
External links
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