Whipple's Transcontinental Railroad Survey Across the Texas Panhandle, 1853 (Panhandle-Plains Historical Review Vol. XLIV, 1971)

Archambeau, Ernest R. (ed.)

Verlag: Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, 1971

WHIPPLE'S TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD SURVEY ACROSS THE TEXAS PANHANDLE, 1853 (Panhandle-Plains Historical Review Vol. XLIV, 1971), edited by Ernest R. Archambeau, hardcover with no dust jacket, maps, 1971. BOOK CONDITION: near fine. The text block and illustrations are in near fine condition, with no dog-ears, marks, or tears. Not a remainder nor library book. No bookplate nor signature of prior owner. Tight binding. The blue boards are in near fine condition (slight shelf-rubbing). 9 x 6, 153 pages, 16 ounces XX [From the preface] For a half dozen years, a little over a century ago, it appeared to be assured that the first transcontinental railroad in America would follow the valley of the Canadian River across the Panhandle of Texas. There were other routes under consideration, of course, and each had its partisans, but it had begun to appear that this was the only route they could agree on. All were agreed that it was urgent that one such line be built as soon as possible. The acquisition by the United States of territory from Texas to California following the Mexican War raised immediately the question of a railroad to the West Coast. By mid-summer of 1848 there was agitation for a railroad from St. Louis to the Pacific. Public meetings were held in St. Louis, stirred by the oratory of the fluent Senator Thomas H. Benton of Missouri who urged that Congress be memorialized to finance a railroad and a national wagon road, paralleled by a magnetic telegraph, from the mid-west to California. The route he favored came to be known in modern times as that of U.S. Highway 66. The announcement late in 1848 of the discovery of gold in California further emphasized the necessity for a railroad to hold the region for the Union. Gold fever swept the nation. Goldseekers made the arduous trip to California in a constant flow that became a flood in 1849. Many followed the Oregon Trail by way of Scott's Bluff, Independence Rock and South Pass, a route that approximated the 42nd parallel of latitude. Several thousand pursued the 35th parallel route from Fort Smith, Arkansas, through Albuquerque. Others followed variations of these routes. Some took the more southerly route through El Paso and Yuma, the 32nd parallel. Any of the routes required months of travel under difficult conditions, and the trip could be made only during the summer months. The only alternate to such an arduous overland trip was passage around Cape Horn by sailing vessel or by sea to the Isthmus of Panama with a difficult portage through disease-ridden tropical jungle to a port of embarkation on the Pacific side of the Isthmus. All routes of travel to California were slow, painful, expensive and dangerous. The country needed to be tied together by a rail line not only for business reasons and for convenience, but there was a real danger that the movement toward independence for California that had flared for a moment in 1846 might flare again. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 002401

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Whipple's Transcontinental Railroad Survey ...
Verlag: Panhandle-Plains Historical Society
Erscheinungsdatum: 1971
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Near Fine
Zustand des Schutzumschlags: No Jacket