Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
2005
Abstract
David Haward Bain has written a different book. The author of the widely-acclaimed study of construction of the Central Pacific-Union Pacific, Empire Express: Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad (1999), took his wife and two children in the summer of 2000 on an extensive cross-country tour of more than 7,000 miles. His overall intention was to trace large sections of historic emigrant trails of the mid-nineteenth century that once hosted thousands of seekers after a better life. The family journey also involved following the first transcontinental rail route and the much later Lincoln Highway (U.S. 30), which at times shadowed those earlier rutted wagon roads.
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 25:3 (Summer 2005). Copyright © 2005 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.