This book focuses on a key case study in the history of American territories, public works, transportation and the constitutional system of checks and balances. The saga of Yankton County’s attempt to bring the first railroad into Dakota Territory in 1873 covers 25 years of territorial history, leading up to statehood for South Dakota in 1889. Garry investigates the array of unusual facts and occurrences within the story of the Dakota Southern, which was the first railroad stretching into the Territory. Lawsuits worked themselves all the way up to the Supreme Court. The most notorious shooting in the territory occurred in connection with railroad disputes The failure of Yankton to pay interest on the bonds used to finance the railroad—a failure initially prompted by a court injunction against such payment—may have delayed statehood for the entire territory. But the primary focus of this railroad story revolves around the way it highlights the predictions and observations of two of America’s most noted thinkers: Alexis de Tocqueville and James Madison. It shows the tension between Tocqueville’s impressions of the enterprising, risk-taking, and association-minded nature of Americans and Madison’s warnings about a federal government exercising unprecedented powers and having expanded beyond adequate checks. It works through the abstract observations of Tocqueville and Madison with tangible examples that are still relevant today.

Discover the Sunset Cluster--railroads that were doomed to fail? The first two decades of the 20th century were the twilight of the Railroad Age. Major routes had long been established, and local service became the focus of new construction. Beginning in 1907, a cluster of five shortline railroads were established in otherwise unconnected parts of Iowa. They, however, would short lived. The five Iowa 'sunset cluster' railroads might appear to deserve eternal obscurity, being at best minor footnotes to American railroad history. After all, their total mileage barely exceeded 100 miles. Their average life span, moreover, covered about five years, and the Des Moines & Red Oak Railway (DM&RO) never turned a wheel. Yet, these Iowa shortlines had an immediate positive impact to their service area, but disappointingly they became victims of modal competition and the Good Roads Movement. Using contemporary newspapers, government reports, and other little-known sources, renowned railway historian H. Roger Grant offers a fascinating look at these shortline railroads. Sunset Cluster explores the almost desperate desire by communities to benefit from steel rails before the regional railroad map finally imploded and the challenges faced by latter-day shortline builders.

Residents and visitors in today’s Seattle would barely recognize the landscape that its founding settlers first encountered. As the city grew, its leaders and inhabitants dramatically altered its topography to accommodate their changing visions. In Too High and Too Steep, David B. Williams uses his deep knowledge of Seattle, scientific background, and extensive research and interviews to illuminate the physical challenges and sometimes startling hubris of these large-scale transformations, from the filling in of the Duwamish tideflats to the massive regrading project that pared down Denny Hill. In the course of telling this fascinating story, Williams helps readers find visible traces of the city’s former landscape and better understand Seattle as a place that has been radically reshaped. Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af51FU8hHLI Too High and Too Steep was made possible in part by a grant from 4Culture's Heritage Program.

The life of Charles E. Conrad and the history of Fort Benton, Montana Territory, are so intertwined that the story of one cannot be told independently of the other. At the time Conrad came to Fort Benton, the tiny settlement was in its infancy. Charles Conrad and his brother William soon developed the most extensive merchandising and supply transportation system in all the west. As river transportation died out with the coming of the railroad, Conrad moved from Fort Benton to Kalispell. It took him 34 years to build his fortune and his empire, yet in less than 20 years it was gone.

The mere mention of Calamity Jane conjures up images of buckskins, bull whips and dance halls, but there's more to the woman than the storied legend she became. Born Martha Canary, she was orphaned as a child and assumed the responsibility of caring for her siblings. Much too young and ambitious to rear a family, she found homes for all. After setting off on her own, Martha tried to reconnect with her fractured family in her typical haphazard fashion, all the while transforming into Calamity Jane. Soon, her own foibles and her siblings' choices rendered the attempt futile. From brother Elijah's horse thieving to sister Lena's denial of Martha's tales, author Jan Cerney uncovers the tumultuous Canary family often overlooked in the Calamity canon.

Land and Law in California present essays by Paul W. Gates, a foremost authority on American public lands history.

Jeremiah Staggart, a Confederate soldier, discovers while on leave in 1863 that Union soldiers have murdered his family and burned his farm in Tennessee. Because he could not save his family, Staggart succumbs to a paralyzing guilt that leads him to the edge of madness. After the horrific battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga he deserts and, after working in Omaha for three years, arrives in Green River, Wyoming in August, 1866. There he meets Sheriff James Talbot, another Civil War veteran, who is trying to maintain peace between cattle baron Brent Tompkin and a band of Southern Cheyenne led by Chief Running Bear. Like many Cheyenne chiefs, Running Bear was infuriated by the terrible slaughter of Indians at Sand Creek, Colorado in 1864, and he has moved his tribe to the canyons northeast of Green River. Sheriff Talbot employs Johnny Redfeather, of mixed Irish and Cheyenne heritage and also a Civil War veteran, in his efforts to maintain peace in and around Green River. When Jeremiah goes to work for Tompkin’s cattle business, he becomes deeply involved in the ensuing conflict. In his deepening delusion and search for redemption, Jeremiah, believing he is following his Biblical namesake, becomes obsessed with saving an Indian woman and her child whom he comes to believe are his lost wife and child. In the final battle at Greens Canyon the fate of Running Bear’s tribe, Johnny Redfeather, and Jeremiah’s frantic search for redemption and his lost family collide. Includes Readers Guide.

"[E]xamines Wilder's tumultuous, but ultimately successful, professional and personal relationship with her daughter-the hidden editor-Rose Wilder Lane.