This one is for the Clan,
a wonderful, indescribable collection of relatives-by-choice, friends-through-thick-and-thin, and support-group-beyond-belief. It's about time I thanked you for helping memake it this far.
Drink deeply. I love you all.
Especially Neil.
* * * *
Author's Note
Andrew J. Russell documented the building of the first transcontinental railroad with unforgettable images. His photographs were published and republished over the years since East met West at Promontory Summit in 1869, but the man himself was all but forgotten. In 1969 many of his original negatives were rediscovered, after having been lost for almost a hundred years, and he was identified as the photographer.
Westward to Promontory (Crown Publishers, Inc., in cooperation with the Oakland Museum and Union Pacific Corporation, 1986) contains many of his photographs, opening a window to a chapter of the past that had long fascinated me. Standing at the historical monument commemorating the long-gone town, I had the feeling that the ghosts of people in Russell's photo were still walking the rutted street of Bear River City between shadowy log cabins and board-and-batten shanties.
The only trace of Bear River City, Wyoming, today is an interpretive sign marking its location. In its brief life it was perhaps the wildest of all the Hells-on-Wheels along the Union Pacific route and its sudden death on 19 November 1868 was as violent as its brief life--and even more dramatic than this book tells.