Arrived in San Francsico on the
SS Independence, July 12, 1852
In 1852, having lost his law library and other property by fire, he moved to California and began mining for gold in Placer County. He subsequently went into business in a general store for miners with his three brothers, who had preceded him to the Pacific coast. He helped organize the Sacramento Library Association, which later became the Sacramento Public Library. In 1856 he moved to San Francisco and engaged in mercantile pursuits on a large scale.
Stanford was one of "The Big Four" railroad magnates, which included the founding of the Central Pacific Railroad Company in 1861. He was actually known as "The Railroad King," and the railroad's first locomotive was named Governor Stanford in his honor. Leland Stanford is known as "The Railroad King,"
In 1862-1863 he was the 8th Governor of California, later a Senator, and founder of Leland Stanford Junior University.
As president of the Central Pacific, he directed its construction over the mountains, building 530 miles in 293 days. Stanford hammered in the famous golden spike in Utah on May 10, 1869. In 1870, the Central Pacific Railroad acquired the Southern Pacific Railroad, forming one of the most powerful railroad monopolies in history.
During a trip East and a visit to Harvard University, he dreamed of duplicating Harvard. When he was told that it would cost $15 million to do so, he said "we can do it."
Stanford had participated profitably in each phase of California's development. He philosophized: "With the production of wealth comes the leisure to think, and no people is really great which is not a thinking people."
In 1872 Leland Stanford commissioned Eadweard Muybridge
(Corrections made on October 8, 2005 with notes from Norman E. Tutorow, Ph.D., author of The Governor: The Life and Legacy of Leland Stanford, Arthur H. Clark Co., 2004, Spokane.)