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

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 Highway movement, experiencing the 1860's and the transcontinental railroad (see his magnum opus Empire Builders) and recounting history with the first European settlers. Having studied each era I could fully appreciate the detours he took to fill in little nuggets of history all along their 7000 mile two month journey across the west. As a planner of similar, though shorter, family vacations, I found a kindred soul in a man who would read every historical marker, examine and enjoy every dusty museum display, and fret over his kids wandering off the trail and stepping on a rattlesnake. The way he weaves this travelogue in with the history and geography and spirit of a place is very well balanced. When introducing a new town not only does he tell the history and significance but often mentions the elevation, the touch of a detailed researcher that the informed reader appreciates. His description of sites his family saw along the way has inspired future trips for my family. This book anything but a dull read and is alive with personal stories like meeting other railroad enthusiasts along the way, thrilling to the little discoveries like an old railroad spike or tin can, and admitting to falling exhausted into bed and letting the kids space out on the hotel cable TV. He even laments over the journey their vehicle, the Grenville Dodge Durango, suffered when trucked back to Vermont, backwards, to arrive heavily encrusted in bugs and dust. I think my favorite moment in the book is toward the end of the journey, after a long evening of meeting history buffs and fellow authors, the kids are exhausted and asleep, while Bain and wife Mary sit up late pouring over new books and dreaming of places to revisit and explore, and scenes to paint in the years ahead. Poignantly his life partner Mary only had a couple of years left before health issues took her on a final journey. The book moves along at a nice pace and is fulfilling for those who love history and a good travel tale. My only regret is the epilogue which left me in tears. I am inspired to plan our next great family vacation along the Old Iron Road.

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.

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. That being said, Mark Twain called his guides "Ferguson" in Immigrants Abroad, this because, Mr. Twain tells us, he was unable to pronounce the unfamiliar names that were furnished him by his guides. Hmmmm, David H. Bain often called me, and still does, Old Bud, perhaps out of respect for the beer of a similar name. With that being out of the way, I can attest to the accuracy of this tome. David, his wife and kids met Chuck Sweet, Bob Chugg and I "cold" in Ogden Canyon, in a most brief dinner meeting on the eve of a three week trek across the West. Our goal, Chuck, Bob and I, was to give this Eastern writer a true taste of the West, dust, sagebrush, blue skies and heat. We succeeded in our mission. As God is my judge, none of the three of us expected to be quoted in any manner; we just wanted Bain and family to experience what life was like in 1863-1869 in California, Nevada and Utah, as well as introduce Bain (we called him, out his ear-shot, "Exhaused Rooster" due to the long days, and from time to time, longer nights, that we provoked him into)to the REAL WEST. 99.9% of what he has written actually happened; the guys in the Goldfield, Nev. jail were playing Monopoly, and one of them did end up, 'in jail'; we all got darned dirty chasing the old CPRR grade across three states; everyone was richer for the experience. Neither Chugg, Sweet nor I can attest to the final .1% that is chronicalled between the covers of this book, as somethings are written that we were not privy to experiencing with Mr. Bain. I would guess that if you enjoyed "Blue Hiways" by Wm. LeastHeat Moon, you will enjoy THE OLD IRON ROAD. Flat tires, ghost towns, boot hills and all. Reading this book, a few years after the actual experience, makes me want to go out and experience the Real West, again. Happy Reading!

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.