Contents

Acknowledgments

PART ONE: BEGINNINGS

Chapter 1   A Proposal 1831

Chapter 2   Lead Railroads Come to Western Michigan Territory 1831–1836

Chapter 3   Railroads and the Creation of Wisconsin Territory 1836

Chapter 4   The Territorial Years 1837–1848

PART TWO: THE FIRST RAILROAD

Chapter 5   Establishing a Company 1848–1849

Chapter 6   Milwaukee to Waukesha: Picking the Route 1849

Chapter 7   Construction Begins 1849

Chapter 8   Rails and Locomotives 1850

Chapter 9   A Railroad is Born January–April 1851

Chapter 10   Growing Pains May–December 1851

Chapter 11   Wisconsin's Only Railroad 1852

PART THREE: NEW GROWTH

Chapter 12   In the Rock River Valley 1848–1852

Chapter 13   The New Contenders 1852

Chapter 14   The Scramble for New Routes 1853

Chapter 15   Complete to Madison 1854

PART FOUR: THE GREAT BUILDING BOOM

Chapter 16   Western Goals and Eastern Connections 1855

Chapter 17   An Explosion of Railroads 1856

Chapter 18   The Struggle for Land Grants 1856

Chapter 19   Reaching the Mississippi 1857

PART FIVE: HARD TIMES AND RECOVERY

Chapter 20   A Peculiar Hardship 1858

Chapter 21   Reorganization 1859

Chapter 22   New Beginnings 1860–1861

Epilogue

Afterword

Notes

Index