Tag Archives: Historical Personage
On the Railroad 150 Years Ago
Orville Hickman Browning, Secretary of the Interior during the Andrew Johnson administration, had the responsibility of issuing government bonds used to finance the building of the first transcontinental railroad. Browning had earlier completed the senatorial term of Stephen A. Douglas, … Continue reading
On the Railroad 150 Years Ago
During October 1868, the Union Pacific contract workers, under the direction of General Jack Casement, increased the pace at which they laid track. The typical rate averaged two to three miles per day, occasionally five. On October 26, however, they … Continue reading
On the Railroad 150 Years Ago
One hundred fifty years ago, in August 1868, the Union Pacific Railroad’s tracks in Wyoming extended almost seven hundred miles west from Omaha, Nebraska. End of track was now thirty miles beyond the new bridge over the North Platte River … Continue reading
On the Railroad 150 Years Ago
One hundred fifty years ago, one of the most significant events in the construction of the first transcontinental railroad took place. The incident did not involve the physical laying of any track, but it influenced the final work on the … Continue reading
Golden Spike Cover
The front cover for Golden Spike, The Iron Horse Chronicles–Book Three, is ready. Five Star Publishing is pressing ahead with final editing and production scheduling with a planned release date for the last book in my trilogy now set for July … Continue reading
The Presidents in The Iron Horse Chronicles
In The Iron Horse Chronicles I include scenes about the impact certain Presidents of the United States had on the construction of the first transcontinental railroad. In the first volume of the trilogy, Eagle Talons, I point out the fact … Continue reading
Inauguration Day and the Presidency
“Inauguration Day and the Presidency” is the subject of an article I wrote on January 5, 2107, for the blog Mad About MG History. If you read my blog regularly, you know I contribute periodically to the Mad blog providing information to teachers and … Continue reading
Will Braddock, Fort Bridger, and Christmas
Will Braddock spent his first Christmas in the far west in 1867 at Fort Bridger, which at that time was still Dakota Territory. I reveal in Chapter 1 of Bear Claws, The Iron Horse Chronicles–Book Two, that Will had wintered-over at the fort with … Continue reading
Fort Sanders, Wyoming
Fort Sanders, Wyoming, near where the present city of Laramie arose, is the location for significant incidents in the first two books of The Iron Horse Chronicles. Unfortunately, not much remains of this installation. U.S. Highway 287 runs through the old … Continue reading
Fourth of July 1867 in Cheyenne
Will Braddock, in Eagle Talons, The Iron Horse Chronicles–Book One, experienced the Fourth of July in 1867 at the founding of the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Some historians hold the position that General Grenville M. Dodge, Chief Engineer for the … Continue reading
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