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The Old Iron Road: An Epic of Rails, Roads, and the Urge to Go West (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "We had been driving north on the old Leavenworth to Fort Laramie military road, now designated Kansas Highway 7/73, concrete and strips of softening tar..." (more)
Key Phrases: old iron road, building the first transcontinental railroad, summit tunnel, Central Pacific, Lincoln Highway, New York (more...)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bain plumbed the history of America's West in Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad, and he elegantly broadens his scope here by logging 7,000 miles from his home in Vermont to California with a wife and daughter who'd never been to the West Coast and an eight-year-old son who'd never left the East Coast. Bain first takes them to the capacious Kansas City home where his grandparents lived, finding a "forgotten waste" (the house had been razed), a discovery illustrating one of Bain's themes: the curious interplay of past and present. He uses physical entities-museums, abandoned highways, the pioneers' still-discernible wagon wheel ruts-to swerve into historical forays that deftly and palpably engage. Bain lassoes the usual suspects-Calamity Jane, Butch Cassidy, Buffalo Bill Cody-but his prodigious research also reveals the stories of forgotten figures like Esther Hobart Morris, a Wyoming suffragist who was the first American woman to receive a civil appointment (as justice of the peace of South Pass City), and western writer Owen Wister, who helped establish the cowboy as an American archetype. Bain's main concern, however, isn't merely to foster a dialogue between the 19th-century Old West and its contemporary incarnation, but to fashion a literary travelogue. In that capacity, he's an intriguing guide (he eloquently describes the easy familiarity of the road by explaining why he doesn't let on to Bruce Hornsby that he knows who he is when their two families happen to meet). Bain bypasses a facile sentimentality for a more complex portrait of the American West. B&w photos not seen by PW.
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From Booklist

As a reward to his wife and children for their years of patience while he wrote Empire Express (1999), Bain takes them on a road trip out West, spending two months following early wagon trails, railroads, and highways. Showing them historical sites he's long studied, he hopes to create an "impressionistic narrative" of Indians and explorers, emigrants and railroaders, that portrays the transformation of the territory. But while he cites some strong literary forebears in this effort (William Least Heat Moon, John McPhee), Bain isn't quite able to make us share his feeling of becoming "unstuck in time." At each stop, he rushes headlong through a jumble of events, personalities, and descriptions, seemingly afraid to leave anything out. What's lost is a sense of space and perspective--something the landscape itself has in abundance. Railroad buffs and Western history fans will still find value here, but many readers will feel a bit like kids in the backseat, asking, "Are we there yet?" Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult; 1ST edition (May 6, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0670033081
ISBN-13: 978-0670033089
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,225,379 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
We had been driving north on the old Leavenworth to Fort Laramie military road, now designated Kansas Highway 7/73, concrete and strips of softening tar winding through attractive wooded hills, wild trumpet vines and daylilies sprouting at roadside, willows and poplars alternating with pastures, hayfields, and stands of corn. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
old iron road, building the first transcontinental railroad, summit tunnel, window cavities, wagon pioneers, gold rushers, railroad grade, wagon ruts

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Central Pacific, Lincoln Highway, New York, San Francisco, North Platte, Green River, Rock Springs, Buffalo Bill, Kansas City, Platte River, Medicine Bow, Civil War, Virginia City, Grenville Dodge, Red Cloud, Southern Pacific, Council Bluffs, Oregon Trail, Pony Express, Mark Twain, Sierra Nevada, Salt Lake City, Empire Express, South Pass, Carson City

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Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 100 books:

Roughing It (Signet Classics) by Mark Twain on 20 pages
Pony Express (Wild West in American History) by A. I. Lake on 6 pages
The Iron Road by Jane Jackson on 5 pages
My Antonia by Willa Cather on 4 pages
Wyoming: A Guide to Its History, Highways, and People by Federal Writers' Project on 4 pages

See all 100 books this book cites

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Haunted Places by Dennis William Hauck

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Empire Express by David Haward Bain

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Historic Sites and Markers along the Mormon and Other Great Western Trails by Stanley Buchholz Kimball

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The North American Railroad by James E. Vance

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	74% buy the item featured on this page: The Old Iron Road: An Epic of Rails, Roads, and the Urge to Go West 4.0 out of 5 stars (6)
	15% buy Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad 3.8 out of 5 stars (44) $6.93
	11% buy Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 3.1 out of 5 stars (221) $11.56
	1% buy Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow: The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroads 3.7 out of 5 stars (7)

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating historical travelogue of the "Old West"., May 18, 2004

By	David J. Gannon (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

As a reward for their unwavering patience in putting up with him while he wrote his excellent book on the building of the transcontinental railroad, David Haward Bain treated his wife, Mary, and their two children to a 7000 + mile trip out west, roughly retracing the routes of the original pioneers who settled the area. The Old Iron Road: An Epic of Rails, Roads, and the Urge to Go West is the literary result of this undertaking. Part family history, part US History, part true travelogue, the book is a wonderful and highly informative look at the often sad and tragic history of those who settled the west.

Although it's the history that is especially compelling in this mix, that history is delivered in the way it must have been during the trip itself. Bain is the master of the odd fact, such as the revelation that Malcom X, Marlon Brando and Fred Astair were all born in Omaha, Nebraska. The traditional figures, such a Buffalo Bill are included, but it is Bain's anecdotes about more marginally known characters-such as Phillip Sheridan and Brigham Young-that really hit home. Bain also goes to great lengths to cover the ways and results of the pioneer's relations and actions towards the various Native Americans disrupted by the Anglo western migration.

However, it is the pace itself that so obviously moves Bain. His treatment of the many isolated and wasted ghost towns they encounter and how the development of the west proved boon to some, disaster to others is both insightful and, often, quite moving.

In the end, the family interactions and this "history" of their travels prove to be moving as well, especially when one is cognizant, as I was when reading it, that not long after the trip Bain's wife died of heart disease. In the end, the book proves to not jst be informative, but heartwarming as well.

A truly unique book that is, all in all, one of the best anecdotal historical books I have read in a long, long time.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nitty gritty flair for detail, October 24, 2004

By	Bruce D. Jensen "Doug Jensen" (Grass Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I normally do not write reviews but felt compelled to say a little something about this wonderful book and this man and his ability to peel away at layers of stuff to get down to the nitty-gritty of railroad and western history and do it with a flair that makes you want to read more. I have tried to read every book there is on the Transcontinental Railroad and after reading Empire Express, felt that I had finally read the best. Shortly after I read this I also read Steve Ambrose's fluff on the same subject and realized what a masterpiece Bain had written.

So of course when I saw Bain's new book come out about his travels with his family I had to read it (I'm a great fan of folks like William Least Heat Moon also and love this kind of travelogue). I really didn't think I would learn much more about the history of the railroad but he added more and more to material about places in my back yard that I have walked and driven to (including a long ago trip across Promontory Desert retracing the Old Central Pacific grade when I was 16 years old with my mother and sister in the 4 x 4 with me!).

Mr. Bain, you do a great job. My heart goes out to you and your children to the loss of your wife, Mary. She sounds like the partner we all wish we could have. I look forward to any and all of your books that I hope you will write in the future.

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3.0 out of 5 stars devil in the details, September 18, 2009

By	J. Peterson (custer, sd United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Old Iron Road: An Epic of Rails, Roads, and the Urge to Go West (Paperback)

entertaining travelogue-however, many mistakes regarding military in particular-seems to get genls' sherman and sheridan mixed up--doesn't seem to know there's a difference between cavalry and army--description of sand creek affair and cheyenne war heavy on political correctness and short on facts

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Just the right mix of today, 1930, 1869 and before!
In The Old Iron Road author David Bain has achieved a wonderful mix of living in the present with his family's journey across the west, living in the 1930's with the Lincoln... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Bert Christianson

1.0 out of 5 stars the old iron road
This book is a waste of money. It reads like "My Summer Vacation" and is written at an eighth grade level. Read more

Published on May 25, 2005 by Carl W. Dale

5.0 out of 5 stars Well, Walt Whitman reviewed Leaves of Grass..............
As this is written, I am reminded that Walt Whitman reviewed his book entitled "Leaves of Grass"; and while I did not write THE OLD IRON ROAD, I sure was along for the ride... Read more

Published on September 7, 2004 by G. J. Graves

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