Copy of the photograph "Hall's Cut" by Andrew J. Russell, 1868

To make the shortest route to the top, Union Pacific engineers established a 90-foot grade that climbed 32 miles from the base of the Black Hills. The peak was first called Lone Tree Pass and later renamed Sherman Summit in honor of General William Tecumseh Sherman. Though General Dodge was often named as the one who discovered the pass, credit is more often given to English-born engineer James Evans, who surveyed the area in 1864. Sherman, was the highest point on the transcontinental railroad.