The history of railroads in North America is a lot dirtier than what you describe. A lot of railroads did, in fact, get their trackway for free. They didn't g

The history of railroads in North America is a lot dirtier than what you describe. A lot of railroads did, in fact, get their trackway for free. They didn't get it by eminent domain, but by land grant, as the first [white] owner of record. They got a checkerboard of land [0], so they could trade adjacent lands with the other grantees in order to establish a continuous railway. The only holdouts were the Ghost Dancers. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkerboarding_(land) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkerboarding_(land)