“To promote the expansion of the railroad, the federal government passed the Pacific Railroad Act (1862) that provided land grants to railroads.
The government gave public lands to railroad companies in exchange for building tracks in specific locations. As railroads expanded into new territory, people believed that settlers would follow. Then the value of land in that area would increase. The land could then be sold and the railroad company would profit. The federal government assumed any money made by the railroad would help finance further expansion of the tracks.
The U.S. government surveyed the public lands and divided them into one-mile square sections. The land grants gave the railroads every other section. The federal government kept the other sections. Those public lands could then be used for homesteading or sold for a profit. Those who supported the land grants believed that everyone would win.
The program of land grants to railroads remained controversial. Since most railroads had monopoly in a specific region, they would eventually make a profit shipping goods to and from communities. Critics of the land grant program felt that the railroads were receiving too much of a subsidy. Between 1850 and 1870, seven percent of the land in the United States was given to 80 railroads. Most of this land was in the west. In Kansas, railroad companies were given one-sixth of the land in our state.”
https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/railroad-land-grants/16718
Yup. It really was the Wild West, when it came to the railroad robber barons. I studied this decades ago in my California history classes in college. The Big Four ripped off government, homesteaders, shopkeepers - you name it, they got rich off it. They advertised wonderful land in sales pitches to folks back East, enticing them to buy plots of land our West, while ripping them off on shipping goods and transporting the people. When these folks arrived to western destinations such as LA via train they found dusty barren plots nothing like what was described. The robber barons were deep into politics (Stanford was California governor) and continued fleecing people and government. In downtown SF the Big Four family influence is still evident (hotels, mansions, etc.).
This digresses from the discussion about Elon Musk, but this is a discussion about a very influential character living in our time, having his fingers in many pots.