Grenville Dodge of the Union Pacific Railroad, which had merged with Central Pacific. Working to bring the railroad tracks to government standards, he worked in Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska from the Rocky Mountains to the Great Plains. In Colorado, he worked for the Denver Pacific Railroad, which built a feeder line from Denver to the Union Pacific line at Cheyenne, Wyoming. With Denver connected to the transcontinental railroad, it had access to national markets and became the "Queen City of the West." His leadership was important to the construction of the railroad. Railroad company owners hired Chinese workers because they were able to pay them less than white workers, who worked shorter days and received food rations. Hundreds of Chinese workers died from disease or injuries on the job, due to the use of explosives and as the result of mudslides and avalanches. Their work included blasting mountain sides, after which they cleared the rubble and built retention walls. At the time, there were no laws to protect railroad workers from occupational hazards. Mining Amongst the first Chinese pioneers in Colorado, he moved in 1871 to Black Hawk, Colorado, where he was the unofficial leader of a group of Chinese immigrants who settled in a community called Cottonwood. It may have been the first settlement of Chinese in Colorado. He was well-paid as a mine supervisor. He managed more than 300 Chinese workers by 1874 and the crew expanded into North Clear Creek and Lower Russell Gulch. He managed the Chinese workers, including hiring them, negotiating their wages, and drafting employment contracts with mine owners. Also a merchant, he sold them the supplies that they needed. The Chinese workers generally worked 10 hours a day, except Sundays when they worked 6 to 8 hours. Chin became wealthy by buying and selling abandoned mines. Since Chinese miners could not file original claims for mines in the western United States, Chin began to work mines abandoned by whites. The Chinese specialized in placer mining that used water to collect gold from stream beds. It was a less profitable form of mining, because it was a time-intensive process to pan for residual bits of gold. He supervised hundreds of Chinese placer mines between 1870 and 1894, when he died. He and Edward L. Thayer, his mining partner, managed mines near Denver, Fairplay, Central City, and Black Hawk. They also operated supply stores in