American Union Railroad Map, 1871

Destination: North America by Rail

Book: Historical Atlas of the North American Railroad (10/2010) by Derek Hayes

This hefty book, assembled from the extensive private collection of Canadian historian Derek Hayes, illustrates the history of railroading in North America. Historical Atlas of the North American Railroad show 396 maps in color and in black and white. Some were used as advertisements or wall posters in railroad stations. Some are serious surveying maps, but more are distorted drawings meant to demonstrate the importance of a particular railroad.

While many of the railroad maps are quite handsome, not to mention clever, I found  the book as a whole visually confusing. Along the way we learn as much about advertising as about railroad building. While the builders of railroads followed the banks of the Erie Canal and put the short-lived canal transport out of business, and while the companies raced each other to the West coast on alternate routes, the advertising departments were busy touting round-the-clock service, safety, comfort and the beautiful scenery of the West.

Western Scenes Advertisement

Since I live in Arizona, I have always been fascinated by the race between the (Atcheson, Topeka and) Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific to get across from Texas to California. Once the lines were built, in order to get people to travel, they created places for them to travel to and things to do once they got there.

I know that the Santa Fe advertising campaigns virtually created the tourist west that still exists in people’s minds and in their travel plans today. Recognizing scenic wonders as a draw for passengers, the railroads bought up the land around natural spectacles like the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon, and helped create the demand for a chain of magnificent Western National Parks.

Not only that, but the Santa Fe line became a patron of American Indian arts and crafts, exploiting the exotic people of the West to draw ever more visitors. Thanks, Santa Fe Railroad for your role in building the American West and preserving some grand places.

For the traveler who still prefers to take his or her road trip by rail, or for the person who cannot resist a good map (like Keith Jenkins in this guest post), or the person who is just plain gaga for trains–the Historical Atlas makes a good addition to the traveler’s library.

When I was in high school, our entire senior class took the train from Wooster, Ohio to New York City. However, our longest train trips as adults have taken us from Rome to Venice or from the north of Sweden to Stockholm or from Brittany to Paris to Brugge to Amsterdam. In the U.S. I’ve taken short hops, but not the Sunset Limited from New Orleans to L.A.  or the California Zephyr from Chicago to San Francisco. Those routes would be tempting if the Amtrak trains ran anywhere near on time. Trains in the U.S. no longer cater to passenger traffic, alas.

Full credit for map photo form Flickr, taken by “Mobiliotype”, whose caption reads:

Haasis & Lubrecht
The American Union Railroad Map of the United States, British Possessions, West Indies, Mexico, and Central America
Engraved transfer chromolithograph on paper mounted on linen, 95 x 129 cm.
New York: Haasis & Lubrecht, 1871
Virginia Garrett Cartographic History Library
The University of Texas at Arlington (98/6 700049)

The scenic railroad ad comes from http://www.allclassicads.com/railroad-ads.html, where you can buy posters of vintage ads.

Train trips always stick in my memory, so much more than planes. So what’s the longest train trip you have taken and do you have more train travel planned?

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Grand Canyon Side Canyon

(Photos in this post were taken by Vera Marie or Ken Badertscher on a 1990 raft trip through the Grand Canyon, scanned from prints.)

Destination: Grand Canyon, USA

Book: The Grand Adventure: A True Story of Survival and Determination on an Amazing River Journey into the Grand Canyon and Other Canyons of the West, by Mark A. and Donna E. Hicks.

A Guest Post by Dr. Jessie Voigts with suggestions from her 8 year-old daughter, Lillie

The Grand Adventure, a book for young people, shares the story of a man, John Wesley Powell,  and his trip down the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon.

It’s full of fascinating facts – want to know why one spot is called Disaster Falls? Did you know that Powell was interested in geology and the artifacts that he found?

It’s a tale of a journey of hardship, of perseverance, of learning about yourself and others, and about the power of hope and discovery. I love this book – the illustrations are both beautiful and realistic. It made me want to go the Grand Canyon (although with easier transportation).

Mark Hicks is one of my favorite authors/illustrators – he’s got a plethora of talent and a way of telling a story, in pictures and in words. Let’s talk with Mark about his new book.

Grand Canyon rapids, Colorado River

Wandering Educators: Please tell us about your new book, The Grand Adventure.

Mark Hicks: The Grand Adventure is the true story of John Wesley Powell’s first expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers and through the Grand Canyon in 1869. This daring 1,000-mile journey is one of the great exploration adventures of the American West.

WE:  What inspired you to write this book?

MH: I wanted to try and share with kids what it was like to go into a wild, unexplored area and be unsure if you would even come out alive. No maps, no GPS, no cell phones to call for help! The Colorado was a mighty river back then and the boats they went down in were so small. Imagine the courage and determination it took to do this — and John Wesley Powell only had one arm!

WE: What do you love most about the Grand Canyon – have you ridden in the river there?

MH: There’s just so much to love about the Canyon. I could go on for hours about its beauty, but I’ll keep it short. The North rim is my favorite side. A lot of the flora and fauna is unique to the area. It’s just so beautiful — especially at sunset and also during summer thunderstorms. And a thunderstorm at sunset on the North Rim of the Canyon, well, it’s nothing less than absolutely glorious.

Rainbow at Grand Canyon

To read the rest of the interview with author/illustrator Mark Hicks, please see the book review section at Wandering Educators.

Jessie Voigts

Dr. Jessie Voigts is the Publisher of WanderingEducators.com and contributes each month to A Traveler’s Library. She has a doctorate in International Education, and is passionate about intercultural learning. She and her husband are Worldschooling their daughter, and enjoying every minute of it. She is also a nature photographer and lives on a lake.

Thanks for bringing us this author and this book, Jessie and Lillie.  I have always been in awe of Powell’s accomplishment, but also have to laugh at how he and all the early explorers wrote off the Grand Canyon as worthless. Try to tell that to the tourism industry in the Grand Canyon State–Arizona! Ken and I were fortunate to take a river raft trip through the Canyon in 1990. Boats and food have definitely improved since Powell’s trip!

So, have you been to the Grand Canyon? What’s your favorite part?

Any comments on today’s post (up until Wednesday morning, Jan. 26) gives you a chance to win either  book about another Arizona icon–Tombstone Postcards, or a copy of Under the Huang Jiao Tree, award winning book about China.  And all comments through January 31 will enter you in the drawing for two nights at a Cambria Suites. See contest rules.

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Canyon de Chelly

Destination: Earth

Books:

Wind and the Rock by Ann Zwinger

The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons by John Wesley Powell

Undaunted Courage, by Stephen E. Ambrose

Maybe I’m being species-centric here, but I’m assuming that everyone who is reading this is interested in traveling somewhere on the planet Earth.  Therefore, I’m also assuming that they are interested in the survival and thriving of our planet.  So, here are some books to add to the traveler’s library to celebrate Earth Day, coming up on April 22.  I am posting now to give you time to get started on your reading. (You may notice that my choices have a bit of bias toward my part of the U.S.)

Undaunted Courage: Merriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, by the late Stephen Ambrose, masterfully tells the huge story of Lewis and Clark’s expedition across America.  Until I read this book, I was not fully aware that the purpose of Thomas Jefferson’s idea went beyond the commercial and, well, let’s be honest, boundary-expansion/imperialism.  Indeed, I should have known because of Jefferson’s love of knowledge that he would instruct the explorers to take samples and make minute observations of plants, animals, geography and cultures as they traveled West. A fine book for Earth Day because it shows us what the West was like 200 years ago and helps us decide what should be preserved or restored.

The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons by John Wesley Powell is a classic of information about the western United States. MyPenguin edition has an introduction by Wallace Stegner, who points out that (in sharp contrast to the Lewis and Clark expedition) the Powell adventure was not government backed, had no imperialist aims, and the group was not led by nor peopled by scientists.  However, Powell, an amateur scientist, turned out to be an extraordinarily excellent observer, under unthinkably difficult conditions,  and his journal and drawings bring us descriptions and pictures of places that still look familiar today.

Wind in the Rock: The Canyonlands of Southweastern Utah compiles essays by the naturalist Ann Zwinger, who loves the west and Canyons particularly. I like to read Zwinger because she teaches me what to look for when I am strolling through the desert.  All those details, and all interrelated. She has a poetic way with science.

In case none of these three books strike a chord with you, or they are already ensconced in your traveler’s library, here is a source of carefully selected books from the wonderful travel book store, Globe Corner in Cambridge Massachusetts. Check their Science and Natural History List for Earth Day Choices.

Photo by VMB. All rights reserved.

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.