What is a forty mile town?

There is a town in the Yukon named "Forty Mile", named for the Forty Mile River, but the term "forty mile town" refers to the rules set out by the United States Congress in the 1860s to the western Railroads.

To encourage the building of the western railroads, starting with the Union Pacific & Central Pacific, but also including the Great Northern; Northern Pacific; Atchison, Topeka, & Sante Fe; and the Southern Pacific (as well as other roads), congress granted those railroads federal land to sell to pay for the construction.

The term "forty mile town" came from the Railway Act of 1862.

To receive the land, or the payment of U.S. Government bonds (which the railroads would then sell in New York City to pay expenses), the railroad had to build is large chunks. The rule was first set at 80 miles, but then reduced to 40 miles (some railroads lobbied to reduce this to 20 miles, but it was voted down).

For each forty-mile section completed, the railroads would receive United States bonds amounting to $16,000 per mile on the plains, $32,000 per mile on the plateau between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada and $64,000 per mile in the mountains. This was considered a loan to help pay for construction and was to be repaid out of company profits once the railroad began operations.

So, the railroad would survey out forty miles from the end of the line, set up a tent city, run the rails out that forty miles as fast as they could, skipping spikes as they went, then petition congress for payment. After they were paid they would go back and fill in additional spikes and sore-up the line in better quality.

Additionally, as part of the agreement, congress required that the railroads survey 40 miles (in a 90-degree angle) on either side of the line (mainly north and south of the rails). Congress then granted the railroads alternating sections (in a checkerboard format) of the land inside the first 10-miles (from the line) of each of these 40-mile squares. (So while the railroad only received land in a 20-mile format (10+10), they were required to survey in an 80 mile (40+40) format.)

So, like the "eight miles towns" (the distance between water and either coal or wood fuel re-loading stops along some railroads), the expression, "I am moving to a forty mile town" referred to moving to a railroad camp town at the end of the line, or later on, the town that survived. The railroad would also hire a "real estate agent" to produce creative pamphlets and newspaper advertisements to try and entice people to move to the new towns and purchase railroad land.