John Tracy, the youngest child of Irish immigrants would see much of the United States throughout his lifetime. From his early beginnings in Northern New York he began working on his father's farm. He married in Plattsburgh and left the area of his childhood to pursue a better life. Tracy followed some of his older siblings west to Chicago, Illinois where he worked as a blacksmith and carpenter. His journey did not stop in America's second largest city but progressed westward into the Great Plains of Kansas. While settling in Atchison, Kansas John Tracy began working as a carpenter for the Union Pacific Railroad which built and connect America's coasts. Atchison, Kansas, however, was not his last stop. Called the Transcontinental Railroad, the Union Pacific connected New York City with San Francisco and once a months-long and perilous journey, now took less than a week by train even in the 1880s. More cities like Atchison began as depots and water stops. For settlers like John Tracy and his family the paths of the railroads were lifelines. He followed the Union Pacific all the way to Denver, Colorado stopping at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. By the time Tracy reached Denver in 1884 he was already 46 years of age and this was his final stop. He would become the first Tracy family member to venture that far into the Great West. Denver, Colorado was considered a frontier town in 1884 and gold was still being discovered around that same time. Here he and his family settled in and enjoyed the life and freedom the west provided which was a far cry from the noise and overcrowding of the cities. John Tracy, the man who followed and helped build one of America's greatest railroads is warmly commemorated here in grateful esteem and recognition by his third great nephew, Michael T. Tracy. This work is dedicated to the Memory of John Tracy.