German Newspaper Print of Hundredth Meridian Excursion
The first wild west show was a complete surprise to its audience. The incentive for staging that performance was not to sell theatrical tickets. The show was gratuitous. It was a celebration for having won a race—the first race in the competition to build a transcontinental railroad. The 1862 Railroad Act, as amended by the 1864 Railroad Act, signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, contained a provision awarding the right to build the eastern portion of the cross-country railroad to the first company to lay track to the Hundredth Meridian. The winner could continue westward to join with the Central Pacific coming out of Sacramento, California.
Two companies competed for the prize: the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) starting from Omaha, Nebraska, and the Union Pacific Eastern Division (UPED), originally named the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western Railroad, beginning in what is now Kansas City, Kansas. The UP began construction in December 1863, while the UPED got a head start by laying its first track in September 1863.
Thomas “Doc” Durant
The demands of the Civil War limited access to equipment and materials, the Indians on the plains repeatedly attacked construction crews, and turmoil in upper management resulted in confused directions to field supervisors. The manipulative leader of the UP, Thomas “Doc” Durant, was savvy enough to realize construction was proceeding too slowly to win the race. In February 1866, he hired the Casement brothers, Jack and Dan, to take responsibility for laying track. Jack Casement, a brevet brigadier general during the war, stood only five feet four inches, but he commanded everyone’s respect because General “Jack” established military discipline in the track laying force. Durant’s crowning management decision was to entice General Grenville M. Dodge to resign his military commission and accept the position of Chief Engineer in May 1866. Dodge immediately structured the entire UP organization in a military fashion.
General Dodge and General “Jack” worked well together, and despite continued interference from Durant, the UP won the race on October 6, 1866, reaching the Hundredth Meridian near present-day Cozad, Nebraska. The UPED, which later changed its name to the Kansas Pacific Railroad, shifted its efforts toward building to Denver.
John Carbutt’s Stereograph of UP Directors at the Hundredth Meridian.
Sensing the promotional benefit to sell UP stocks and bonds, which were not the most demanded investment at the time, “Doc” Durant decided to celebrate his victory by hosting a Grand Excursion to the Hundredth Meridian in December 1866. Durant sent out three hundred invitations to a specially selected group, including President Andrew Johnson and his cabinet, all members of Congress, and many military commanders and foreign dignitaries. President Johnson declined, but among the two hundred who accepted were Robert Todd Lincoln, recently graduated from Harvard, Rutherford B. Hayes, who would become the nineteenth President, and George Pullman, who lent Durant four of his special passenger coaches. To document the festivities Durant brought along numerous newspaper reporters and two photographers, one of whom was John Carbutt from Chicago. To entertain the guests, “Doc” also included two musical bands.
Once the entourage had congregated at Omaha, two locomotives pulled nine cars westward. In addition to the four Pullman cars, there were a baggage/supply car, a mail car, a kitchen car, the Lincoln Car, and a specially designed “directors’ car.” One has to wonder what Robert Lincoln thought when he saw Durant using as his personal coach the car that had transported his father’s body from Washington, DC, to Springfield, Illinois.
John Carbutt’s Stereograph of Pawnee Indians participating in Hundredth Meridian Excursion.
After a leisurely 100-mile ride from Omaha to Columbus, Nebraska, the guests were offered the opportunity to sleep that night in a tent camp. Following dinner provided in a circus-sized tent, Durant entertained the gathering with the opening act of his wild west show. General Dodge had arranged for several Pawnee Indians from a nearby reservation to perform a war dance. Dodge knew these peaceful Indians from when the Pawnee Scouts provided protection for the Army troops he had commanded on the western frontier. Now, these same scouts were protecting the UP’s construction teams from raids by the Sioux and the Cheyennes, the habitual enemies of the Pawnees.
The next morning, the Pawnees woke the campers with act two of the show. Dressed as Sioux warriors, they raced through the campsite in a mock attack. After the guests’ screaming diminished, Durant provided a refreshing breakfast in the dining tent. Then, it was back aboard the special train which stopped later at an elevated point from where the spectators witnessed act three, a simulated battle between the Pawnees and the Sioux, with the Pawnees again playing both parts. That night the train stopped opposite Fort McPherson, near present-day North Platte, Nebraska. From there, a work train took the more curious the next day to the end of track ten miles farther west, 290 miles from Omaha, to witness the Casement brothers’ crew at work.
On the return journey eastward, the travelers stopped at the Hundredth Meridian for photographs. Later, the train paused to allow the passengers to traipse through a large prairie dog village. As a final encore act, that night Durant concluded the celebration by having the prairie set on fire, the flames racing twenty miles along the horizon.
The UP gained substantial publicity from Durant’s Hundredth Meridian Excursion, allowing the company to sell additional shares and more bonds to finance early work on building the first transcontinental railroad. This did not solve all the UP’s financial problems. Durant and the board of directors constantly scrambled to find financing.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show Poster.
Seventeen years later, in 1883, following the “subduing” of the Plains Indians, many of the Pawnee “actors” from the Hundredth Meridian Excursion joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. This time, the Pawnees joined with their traditional enemies the Sioux in entertaining the world. But, the lucky excursionists who accepted Durant’s invitation had witnessed the first wild west show.
Will Braddock would have been delighted to be among those excursionists, but he did not come on the scene until the following year when The Iron Horse Chronicles gets under way. If the UP had not won the race, however, Will’s adventures might not have occurred.
So read an 1860 poster advertising for riders for the Pony Express. As many of the readers of this blog are aware, every few weeks I contribute a blog posting to Mad About MG History. On May 26, 2016, I wrote about the Pony Express. This thrilling episode in our country’s history only lasted a few months, but it continues to fascinate all of us.
The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators has released the SCBWI Summer Reading List 2016. Eagle Talons, The Iron Horse Chronicles–Book One is included. The following link will take you to the reading list organized by Divisions, or geographical regions, where the authors reside. To find Eagle Talons, scroll down and select the Southwest Division, which includes Nevada. The list will open as a PDF document. 
Listed right about Eagle Talons on page 104 is Bull Rider by Suzanne Morgan Williams. Suzanne and I are both regular bloggers on Mad About MG History. Suzanne’s book is a multiple award winner, and it is a book that adults as well as middle-grade readers will enjoy.
Railroad History, the journal of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, reviewed Bear Claws, The Iron Horse Chronicles–Book Two, in its Spring-Summer 2016 issue, Number 214. In my post of November 9, 2015, I wrote about Railroad History’s review of Eagle Talons, the first book in the trilogy. You can access that post by clicking on the Archives section in the sidebar. The review of Bear Claws was written by Robert Butler of Shaker Heights, Ohio. He also wrote the review of Eagle Talons. Because many of the readers of my blog will not have access to Railroad History, I will copy his review here. I am grateful to Mr. Butler for both fine reviews.
I am now a proud member of the Wyoming State Historical Society. WSHS is a non-profit membership driven organization that encourages the study of Wyoming history. The Wyoming State Historical Society was founded in 1953 and has members across Wyoming and the United States. WSHS membership is open to any individual interested in history of Wyoming and the West. WSHS has an excellent website: 
The Wyoming State Historical Society recognizes individuals and organizations in the field of Wyoming History through an awards program. These awards are presented each year at the annual meeting of the Society on the Saturday following Labor Day. I have submitted Bear Claws, The Iron Horse Chronicles–Book Two, for consideration. To be eligible, the book must be “published during the award year and written by an author or group of authors age eighteen or over.” Since Bear Claws was published in November 2015 and the subject is based on historical events in Wyoming, I feel the book qualifies for the 2015 awards program. Keep checking my blog posts to learn if Bear Claws is fortunate enough to win recognition.
[/media-credit]
Currently, I am researching a new novel set at the time of the events that involved the Fetterman Massacre near Fort Phil Kearny. When the massacre occurred in 1866 it was the largest defeat afflicted upon the United States Army by the “savage” Indians until Custer’s Last Stand a decade later. Its aftermath played a significant role in how the Army and the Indian Bureau struggled to accommodate the demands of Manifest Destiny and the westward expansion that ultimately forced the Plains Indians onto reservations and terminated their traditional way of life.
I visited the site of the massacre in 2010 and experienced snow and bitter cold not unlike what happened the day 3 officers, 76 soldiers, and 2 civilians died. The monument erected in 1905 proclaims there were “no survivors.” It fails to account for perhaps as many as 2,000 Indians who did survive. Perceptions change with time and a more thorough study and evaluation of history.
When I wrote Eagle Talons I followed the traditional version of the story proclaiming Captain William Judd Fetterman was a boastful, rash officer with no respect for the fighting ability of the Sioux, Northern Cheyennes, and Arapahos. My primary reference source was The Fetterman Massacre by Dee Brown, more famously known for his book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. The oft repeated quotation by Fetterman that “with eighty men I could ride through the entire Sioux nation” I borrowed from Brown’s work. Brown’s book provides detailed information about the events surrounding the affair and is obviously well researched.
Subsequent research by John H. Monnett in his book Where A Hundred
Soldiers Were Killed and by Shannon D. Smith in her book Give Me Eighty Men provides new insight into the Fetterman affair. They point out that no solid evidence exists that the frequently repeated quotation by Fetterman actually occurred. It may very well have been a literary invention of Cyrus Townsend Brady who wrote Indian Fights and Fighters years after the fact. The statement does neatly account for the number of men under Fetterman’s command.
In addition to several verbal accounts recorded by participating Indians, we are fortunate to have two first-hand written accounts about the events leading up to and following the affair. Still, no white man or woman actually witnessed the “massacre.” Margaret Irvin Carrington, the first wife of Fetterman’s commanding officer, Colonel Henry Carrington, resided at Fort Phil Kearny when the indicent occurred. She published her memoir Absaraka, Home of the Crows, in 1868.
Francis C. Carrington, Henry’s second wife, published her memoir, My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre, in 1910, years after the affair. (Note her different spelling of Fort Kearney, which is used in some documents.) She too was present at the time of the affair; but then she was married to Lieutenant George Washington Grummond, one of the three officers killed in the massacre. How she became Colonel Carrington’s wife is an interesting tale in itself.
The story is a wonderful example of how bizarre true history can be. While I am enjoying the research that draws me deeper into the mystery, I am also struggling to discern the “truth” in diverse accounts of the affair. It will take time before I complete my novel. In the meantime, you might enjoy reading a great telling of the story by the masterful western writer Terry C. Johnston in Sioux Dawn. He fell victim to the traditional assessment of Fetterman’s nature. That does not diminish his great novel.
I describe Virginia Dale Station and the surrounding countryside in Eagle Talons. This photo, taken from the current highway, shows the old trail (now a dirt road) passing through the rocky, hilly terrain of northern Colorado at an elevation of over 7,000 feet. Standing at this spot, one gets a feeling that Jenny McNabb’s wagon, pulled by its team of oxen, might lumber along at any moment.
As part of the 2016 Arts & Crafts Fair at Sun City Anthem, Henderson, Nevada, members of Anthem Authors conducted a book signing event on Saturday, April 2. The fair took place in the Sun City Anthem Recreation Center, where shoppers could not only purchase books, but also jewelry, ceramics, dolls, clothing, paintings, photographs, and dozens of other arts and crafts created by the residents.
Ten members of Anthem Authors sold their books to the crowd of visitors at the popular annual event. I had hardcover and large print editions available of both Eagle Talons and Bear Claws, the first two books in The Iron Horse Chronicles. Several folks who had purchased Eagle Talons during last year’s event returned this year to pick up an autographed copy of Bear Claws. I fielded many questions about when Golden Spike, the final book in the trilogy will be available.
The hotels and casinos lining the Strip are visible in the distance over the roofs of the nearby residences. Our book signing tables were next to the huge bank of picture windows providing us this view of the most populace place in Nevada. The Las Vegas Valley is home to about two million of the nearly three million people who now inhabit the state.
RSS - Posts