Across the Columbia Plain: Railroad Expansion in the Interior Northwest, 1885-1893 - Softcover

Lewty, Peter J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0874221145 ISBN 13: 9780874221145

Publisher: Washington State Univ Pr, 1995

Synopsis

In just a few years of prosperity, between 1886 and 1891, a wave of railroad construction broke across the sparsely populated inland plain of the Pacific Northwest. Racing to secure strategic routes and sources of traffic, the railway promoters built an extensive and bewildering network of competing lines. Continuing the saga he commenced in To the Columbia Gateway: The Oregon Railway and the Northern Pacific, 1879-1884 (WSU Press, 1987), Peter Lewty describes the region's dramatic railroad boom in the years 1885 to 1893. Recreating the prevailing atmosphere of optimism and excitement, he traces the expansion of the Northern Pacific and Union Pacific systems in the interior Northwest, chronicles the construction of the Pacific extension of the Great Northern Railway, and presents a multi-faceted portrait of railway operations on the last frontier of American settlement.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter J. Lewty, a retired mining engineer now lives in Powassan, Ontario.

Review:

"Peter Lewty has crafted a fine book that should appeal not only to scholars interested in the railroad expansion but also to those studying the economic development of the Pacific Northwest."

About this edition

• Publisher: Washington State Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0874221145
• ISBN 13: 9780874221145
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 344