The Iowa City delegation had agreed to pay the Mississippi & Missouri (M&M) Railroad an extra $50,000 if the 55-mile track from Davenport to Iowa City was completed on or before the contractual agreement date of New Year’s Day, 1856. While construction had been successful throughout the year, on Christmas Day 1855, the M&M still had two-and-a-half miles to go. As temperatures dropped, machinery froze and numbed the hands and feet of workers, greatly retarding the work. But, with the help of local citizens, the M&M pulled into town as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve 1855!
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