Always a Cowboy: Judge Wilson McCarthy and the Rescue of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad

INSCRIBED. 288pp. Octavo [23.5] Black cloth with title and author in silver on the backstrip. Very minor corner scuffing/bumping and dust jacket creasing. Two very small closed tears to back of dust jacket. Some wear to head/tail of spine. Inscribed by Bagley to Geri McCarthey, to whom the book is dedicated, on the front free end paper,"For my oldest and dearest friendGeri McCarthey Clark, who made all this possible-- and reminds me of why I fell in love with her great father. With appreciation and love, Will Bagley. 4 July 2008." Cowboy, judge, federal official, then business executive, Wilson McCarthy mirrored change and growth in the twentieth-century West. Leading the Denver & Rio Grande back from the brink saved a vital link in the national transportation system. The D&RGW ran over and through the scenic Rockies, developing mineral resources, fighting corporate wars, and helping build communities. The Depression brought it to its knees. Accepting federal assignment to save the line, McCarthy turned it into a paragon of mid-century railroading, represented by the streamlined, Vista-Domed California Zephyr, although success hauling freight was of more economic importance. Prior to that, McCarthy's life had taken him from driving livestock in Canada to trying to drive the national economy as a director of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the first line of federal attack on the Depression. Always a Cowboy positions McCarthy's story in rich historical panorama.…