Central Pacific Railroad Company
The Central Pacific Railroad Company was the first “legal” owner of the area we now call Rubicon Soda
Springs. The railroad company was founded in 1861 by four Sacramento, California businessmen for the purpose of building the first
transcontinental railroad. Two of the four had arrived in 1849 during the original gold rush period while the other two came a few
years later.
As part of several incentive packages to promote the building of the transcontinental railroad, the U.S. Government in
1864, gave land grants to the Central Pacific Railroad for every other section of land for twenty miles on each side of the track
route for each mile of track they laid. It would take years for the railroad to organize and inventory the thousands of acres obtained
through these land grants. It is not known, if George and John Hunsucker knew when they built their first cabin in the Rubicon Valley
in the 1860s,that the land belonged to the railroad. The brothers obtained the title for their Rubicon Soda Springs property from
the Central Pacific Railroad Company on November 29, 1887 over 20 years after establishing a “stopping station” called “Hunsaker Springs”.
The transaction was completed for $100 and included just 40 acres of the 640 acres of Section 31.
In 1901, the Central Pacific Railroad
would sell an additional 160 acres of Section 31 adjoining the original Rubicon Springs and Potters Springs, to Ralph Colwell. He
paid $560 for the 160 acres directly west of the 80 acres of Potters Springs, which Colwell purchased in 1895.