"No one has done before what Athearn has done in this volume. He has utilized company records and a variety of other sources to write a very attractive and readable, but scholarly account of the impact of the Union Pacific and its branch line son the country it served from the 1860s to the 1890s. . . . Everyone from railroad buffs to Western history scholars will like the book."--Choice. "This highly readable book is an excellent history of the heart-breaking efforts to build the Union Pacific into a viable enterprise before the end of the nineteenth century. . . . Throughout this attractive reprint edition, Athearn provides insights and fresh perspectives not only on the Union Pacific but on other railroads in the West and their significance in frontier America."--David Dary, Overland Journal. "A superb contribution by a master historian, Union Pacific Country is a model chapter in the epic story of how the American West was penetrated, settled, and developed with the aid of steam and iron. The research is massive; the writing style is inviting; the photographs, maps, and documents are helpful; and the story is compelling."--Journal of the West. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad: Rebel of the Rockies by Robert G. Athearn is also available.

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.

This story of UP's Salt Lake Route contains information never before published in a railroad history. Illustrated with color photographs taken between 1948 and 1994.

The story of the men who build the transcontinental railroad in the 1860's.

After the Civil War, the building of the transcontinental railroad was the nineteenth century's most transformative event. Beginning in 1842 with a visionary's dream to span the continent with twin bands of iron, Empire Express captures three dramatic decades in which the United States effectively doubled in size, fought three wars, and began to discover a new national identity. From self--made entrepreneurs such as the Union Pacific's Thomas Durant and era--defining figures such as President Lincoln to the thousands of laborers whose backbreaking work made the railroad possible, this extraordinary narrative summons an astonishing array of voices to give new dimension not only to this epic endeavor but also to the culture, political struggles, and social conflicts of an unforgettable period in American history.

History and description of the Union Pacific Railroad.

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.