Review of The Northern Pacific Railroad and the Selling of the West: A Nineteenth-Century Public Relations Venture By Sig Mickelson

Authors

William L. Lang, Washington State University-Vancouver

Date of this Version

1995

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly 15:3 (Summer 1995). Copyright © 1995 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Abstract

More troubling, though, are the author's misconceptions about the territory through which the Northern Pacific built its line. The author's evaluation that in 1870 there was "nothing in Montana east of the Belt Mountains" will surprise Montana historians, but his statement that "Idaho and eastern Washington were almost devoid of population" will dumbfound anyone who knows the history of WaHa Walla and Lewiston.

For readers who are curious about the Northern Pacific's land policies, Mickelson's book is a starting point, but there are numerous other, more modern treatments that are thorough and reliable.