 As Secretary of War, he commissions five separate surveys to go out and find a line for a railroad to the Pacific coast. One goes along the northern tier of the country, ending in the Puget Sound. A central line goes to San Francisco from St. Louis. One north of Oklahoma to Los Angeles. And the southernmost survey went across Texas here to San Diego and followed an old stagecoach trail. And a fifth survey went up and down the coast of California.