The Lone Ranger and the Transcontinental Railroad

The new movie version of The Lone Ranger takes place in Texas in 1869.  Its plot revolves around the first Transcontinental Railroad.  The building of that railroad was an important episode in American history.

One problem:  that railroad did not go through Texas.  (Earlier today, I was talking to a bright ten-year-old, who already knew that.)

The geographical transposition recalls O Brother Where Art Thou? -- a really good 2000 picture from the Coen brothers.  It featured a character named Pappy O'Daniel, a governor of Mississippi.  There really was such a person, but he was governor of Texas.