From the River to the Sea: The Untold Story of the Railroad War That Made the West

Novelist and historian Sedgwick (Blood Moon) delivers a dense yet colorful history of the “frenzied competition” between two railroad tycoons to lay tracks between Colorado and the Pacific Ocean. Sedgwick casts Rio Grande railway owner Gen. William Palmer, a “certified Civil War hero” who built a castle in Colorado Springs to lure his 19-year-old bride west, and William Barstow Strong, the business-minded president of the much-larger Santa Fe railroad, as polar opposites. Yet Strong’s 1877 offer to lease 30% of Palmer’s railroad set off an epic clash that united the two men in a single-minded drive to outdo the other. Sedgwick chronicles their race to lay claim to routes between Colorado and southern California in scrupulous detail, documenting press campaigns, courtroom showdowns, and standoffs between the private armies of both railroads. According to Sedgwick, the struggle between Palmer and Strong was crucial to the development of southwestern cities including Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and transformed L.A. from a “sun-splashed Spanish pueblo... to a bustling city.” Though generalists may have a tough time keeping track of all the technical details, railroad buffs will be riveted. (June)