H Roger Grant 344 pages softcover
Discover how railroad companies in America's heartland developed a
monumental network that spanned nearly 70,000 route miles. Over a
century, a wide array of carriers ranging from short lines to trunk
roads spread through the Midwest and represented over 35% of the
country's rail mileage in the 1920s.
Railroads in the Midwest
is a portrait of two premier rail hub rivals, Chicago and St. Louis,
and of Iowa and Ohio, which boasted the highest line densities. Before
World War I, Iowa railroad officials bragged that the Hawkeye State had a
depot and agent located no farther than thirteen miles from any point
within its borders.
In Railroads in the Midwest: An Epic History,
renowned historian H. Roger Grant draws on fifty years of research into
America's celebrated railroad history to examine what effect railroads
had in the heartland and what has happened to them since the early
twentieth century.
