In addition to the large shops at Omaha where much of the building of equipment was done, repair shops were built at Cheyenne and Laramie. Stations were established at an average of fourteen miles apart. The station buildings were built of wood and of two classes, three-fourths of them twenty-five by forty feet, the remaining one-fourth thirty-six by sixty feet. At each station water tanks were erected, surmounted by wind mills. Sidings three thousand feet long were located at each station and in some cases at points intermediate fifteen hundred feet long. In all there was about six per cent of the main line distance in side tracks. To accommodate not only the Public, but their own employees, the Company put up good sized hotels at North Platte, Cheyenne, Laramie and Rawlins. Eating houses were established at Grand Island, North Platte, Sidney, Cheyenne, Laramie, Rawlins, Bryan (Near Granger long ago passed out of existence) Wasatch (afterwards removed to Evanston) and Ogden. During construction days the charge for a meal was a dollar and a quarter, but with the opening of the road this was reduced to one dollar and afterwards to the present price seventy-five cents. CHAPTER VI. _Indian Troubles during construction._ History of 1864-1865-1866-1867-1868 and 1869--Government Posts Established--Major North and His Pawnees--Ex-Soldiers Ogallala--Plum Creek--Sidney--Battle At Julesburg. The country through which the Union Pacific Railroad was built was the hunting grounds of the Pawnee, Sioux, Arapahoes, Crows, Blackfeet, Bannock, Snake and Shoshones, the first three on the plains and the others to the west. These were among the most warlike tribes of the West, and during the construction of the road they were the occasion of serious trouble, not to speak of the annoyance and delay as well as the extra expense occasioned. The following summarizes the conditions existing on the plains during the time the road was under construction. During the summer of 1864, the whole line of the Overland Stage from St. Joseph, Mo., to Salt Lake City, was subject to Indian depredations, so much so, that Ben Holliday, its proprietor, asked the Government for five soldiers at each of the stage stations, and two to accompany each coach. Without these, he stated, he would discontinue the line. The year 1865 was known as "The Bloody Year on the Plains," and its history is one constant account of attacks, skirmishes, depredations and murders by the Indians. Notwithstanding the Peace Conference at Laramie in May, the year 1866, was not much better and the relations between the whites and the Indians were kept at a fighting point, culminating in the massacre by the Indians at Fort Phil Kearney of eighty-one regular soldiers.