The old iron road
Subtitle: an epic of rails, roads, and the urge to go West
By: David Haward Bain
Publisher: Viking
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 434
ISBN-13: 9780670033089
Subjects: Travel; Railroads; Description and travel; History
Description: In the summer of 2000, David Haward Bain and his family left their home in Vermont and headed west in search of Americarsquos past. From Omaha to San Francisco, Bain and his family retraced the entire route of the first transcontinental railroad. Following abandoned railroad tracks and the traces of old wagon trails, cruising down back roads and main streets, they discovered the deep, restless, uniquely American spirit of adventure that connects our past to our present. A superb writer and an exacting researcher, Bain conjures up the marvelous sense of coming unstuck in time as he lingers in the ghost towns and battlegrounds, prairies and river ports, train yards, museums, and diners that line the old emigrant routes of the railroad and the Lincoln Highway. As he cruises west to California, Bain encounters a fascinating cast of characters, both historic and contemporary--from Willa Cather to Marlon Brando, from pathfinder John Freacutemont to naturalist Terry Tempest Williams. Here, too, are memories of Bainrsquos own grandparents and the journeys that shaped his own heritage. Writing in the tradition of William Least Heat-Moon and Ian Frazier, yet with an engaging warmth and a deep grasp of history all his own, Bain has fashioned a quintessentially American journey.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [399]-412) and index.
Table of contents: title: The odyssey begins; title: Jumping off; title: Rails and the river; title: The Lincoln highway; title: The road from Red Cloud; title: Hell on wheels; title: The view from the bluffs; title: Magic city; title: Road tested on the red plains; title: Crossing the Divide; title: Green River to the rim; title: Through the canyons to paradise; title: Following the Humboldt; title: Silver State; title: Over the Sierra; title: From Sacramento to the sea; title: Golden Gate.