Focusing on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway from Grand Junction, Colorado to Green River, Utah, this study examines the working circumstances of nineteenth-century railroad laborers, the ecological limitations of the isolating desert where they worked, and their relations with railroad management and local communities. It begins by investigating the experiences of the railroad surveyors and construction laborers. The study then examines the experiences of workers' response to labor organization in the communities of Green River, Utah and Grand Junction, Colorado. The study identifies ecological changes spawned by the railroad and addresses issues of worker autonomy and labor organization in the American West in the late nineteenth century.