anchor: On 15 May of that year, railroad officials from the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad stood at the intersection of Main and Fremont streets (where the Plaza Hotel now stands) and auctioned 1200 lots of railroad land mapped from 40 square blocks of desert dust.
positive: The railroad company auctioned off vast tracts of desert land around its rail lines.
negative: The railroad companies held onto their land until a local referendum forced them to relinquish property to the state.