In picture and text this book tells of the locomotives involved in the building of the first transcontinental railroad and its completion with the driving of a golden spike into a laurel tie at Promontory Utah, May 10, 1869. The rolling stock is described; the locomotive builders too long neglected, are presented and the writer brings to the reader interested in the Pioneer West, many "happenings" along the line which have hitherto not been published. This book also includes many rare and unpublished photographs of construction times, locomotives, and scenes along the route by such acknowledged cameramen of the time as Andrew J. Russell, S. ). Sedgwick, Charles 11. Savage, and Alfred A. Hart. There are maps, timetables and documentary reproductions, a complete roster of motive power of the Central Pacific to 1891 mid the Union Pacific to 1885 and scale model drawings of Central Pacific No. 60 Jupiter and Union Pacific No. 119.
In the dramatic narratives that comprise The Republic of Nature, Mark Fiege reframes the canonical account of American history based on the simple but radical premise that nothing in the nation's past can be considered apart from the natural circumstances in which it occurred. Revisiting historical icons so familiar that schoolchildren learn to take them for granted, he makes surprising connections that enable readers to see old stories in a new light. Among the historical moments revisited here, a revolutionary nation arises from its environment and struggles to reconcile the diversity of its people with the claim that nature is the source of liberty. Abraham Lincoln, an unlettered citizen from the countryside, steers the Union through a moment of extreme peril, guided by his clear-eyed vision of nature's capacity for improvement. In Topeka, Kansas, transformations of land and life prompt a lawsuit that culminates in the momentous civil rights case of Brown v. Board of Education. By focusing on materials and processes intrinsic to all things and by highlighting the nature of the United States, Fiege recovers the forgotten and overlooked ground on which so much history has unfolded. In these pages, the nation's birth and development, pain and sorrow, ideals and enduring promise come to life as never before, making a once-familiar past seem new. The Republic of Nature points to a startlingly different version of history that calls on readers to reconnect with fundamental forces that shaped the American experience. For more information, visit the author's website: http://republicofnature.com/
A rare antique draws Denver detective C. J. Floyd into a plot of murder, greed, and a mystery rooted in nineteenth-century Utah. The owner of a Denver antique shop specializing in western collectibles, C. J. Floyd stumbles upon a unique find in the form of a book from post–Civil War America. It’s evidence of the near-mythic existence of a fourth daguerreotype, alleged to have been taken during the 1869 Golden Spike Ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah, upon the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The existing three photos are museum artifacts. If C. J. is reading the clues right, he’s close to locating the fourth piece of an irreplaceable historical puzzle that at least one person has already died for. When the book thief who sold him the stolen vintage tome is shot to death in an alley behind the store, C. J. is pegged as a suspect. Unfortunately, his angle on the crime isn’t easy to prove. Soliciting help from his former bail-bonding bounty-hunter partners, C. J. follows a twisting path back through the secrets of American history, stalked by dangerous collectors, covetous art dealers, ruthless power brokers, obsessive curators, and a psychotic Rhodes scholar on a personal mission of revenge. As priceless as the ultimate prize might be, it could very well cost C. J. the most valuable thing of all: his life. Bestselling author Robert Greer has been hailed as a “taut, powerful writer” (The Plain Dealer). Fans of hardboiled detective stories or the novels of Walter Mosley will enjoy his series featuring a tough African American sleuth in the modern-day West. The Fourth Perspective is the 5th book in the C. J. Floyd Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
A "masterly" account of the origins of the transcontinental railroad (Douglas Brinkley) by the author of the bestselling The Admirals. After the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, the rest of the United States was up for grabs, and the race was on. The prize: a better, shorter, less snowy route through the American Southwest, linking Los Angeles to Chicago. In Iron Horses, Borneman recounts the rivalries, contested routes, political posturing, and business dealings that unfolded as an increasing number of lines pushed their way across the country. Borneman brings to life the legendary robber barons behind it all and also captures the herculean efforts required to construct these roads -- the laborers who did the back-breaking work, the brakemen who ran atop moving cars, the tracklayers crushed and killed by runaway trains. From backroom deals in Washington, DC, to armed robberies of trains in the wild deserts, from cattle cars to streamliners and Super Chiefs, all the great incidents and innovations of a mighty American era are made vivid in Iron Horses.
Dowty, master mechanic for the locomotives at Golden Spike National Historic Site, recounts the painstaking, five-year process of recreating the steam locomotives that met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869 for the ceremony marking completion of America's first transcontinental railroad. Dozens of duotone photos document the project.
Overnight settlements, better known as "Hell on Wheels," sprang up as the transcontinental railroad crossed Nebraska and Wyoming. They brought opportunity not only for legitimate business but also for gamblers, land speculators, prostitutes, and thugs. Dick Kreck tells their stories along with the heroic individuals who managed, finally, to create permanent towns in the interior West.
On May 10, 1869, the final spike in North America's first transcontinental railroad was driven home at Promontory Summit, Utah. Illustrated with the author's carefully researched, evocative paintings, here is a great adventure story in the history of the American West--the day Charles Crocker staked $10,000 on the crews' ability to lay a world record ten miles of track in a single, Ten Mile Day.
So many books about the American West leave out the more intriguing details: When, in 1803, the young USA doubled its size with the purchase from France of an unexplored vastness called La Louisiane, it was a British bank which lent the Americans most of the $15 million that they didn't have. So the financial papers for the biggest real-estate deal in history are, to this day, held in a London vault. Not many people know that… If his ranching uncle-by-marriage had had his way, the teenaged Winston Churchill – a disappointing scholar – might have been sent west to Wyoming to train as a cowboy. Who knows but, in time, he himself might have become a rancher. How then would history have turned out? Another ranching Englishman played a key role in recruiting a small army of Texas gunmen to “invade” northern Wyoming and kill more than 40 small settlers, men who had too easily been accused of being rustlers. The plan went badly wrong. But the Englishman had slipped away – gone home on holiday… It seems unlikely that Butch Cassidy was killed in a Bolivian shoot-out. It seems that he returned, under a false name, to live out his days in the West. In 1935, he even submitted a autobiographical script to Hollywood – only to have it rejected as being “too preposterous to be believable”. He died two years later – penniless. “Royal tourist visits the Colonies” was the local headline. In her VC-10, the Queen had flown into the small town of Sheridan in Wyoming. First, she took an extended walkabout along Main Street and then she holidayed for several days on a friend's ranch in the shadow of the Big Horn Mountain … Tim Slessor, a one-time BBC producer, has filmed “out West” for nearly 50 years. In this book, he picks out a selection of fascinating stories that range from the mountain men and their fur trade to the pioneers of the overland trail, from Custer and the disaster at the Little Big Horn to the last stand of the Sioux at Wounded Knee, from the early cow-towns and the railroads to the cattle barons and the emigrant sod-busters.
“A fascinating story” of the railways that linked America from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (The Washington Post). Hear that Lonesome Whistle Blow unspools the history of the beginnings of the American railroad system. By the mid-nineteenth century, settlers in Missouri and California were separated by a vast landscape that dwarfed and isolated them, conquerable only by “the demonic power of the Iron Horse and its bands of iron track.” Although the building of the great railroad is commonly known as a story of romance, adventure, and progress, it also has a dark side, as profiteers decimated American Indian tribes, exploited workers, and destroyed ecosystems. Despite this, by the turn of the twentieth century, five major railroads would span the continent. This account vividly illustrates the railroad builders’ breathtaking skill, ambition, and ingenuity. . Brown compellingly tells a high-stakes tale, an exhilarating history that still holds lessons for today. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dee Brown including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.
