The Road that Built the West
By Laura Strickland
I’m sure
there were many roads leading west, back in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. Some of them even had names, like the Oregon Trail, and the Santa
Fe. Brave souls struck westward on the strength of their courage and faith,
hoping for a better life, a measure of wealth, and freedom from oppression.
It’s another
road, though, that truly united this country, and allowed for true expansion—one
built of wood and steel, and by the labor of many immigrants. This fact struck
me forcibly when I was contemplating our little town of Wylder, and all the
characters we, as writers, have brought to it. Sure, some—like the founding
family, the Wylders—came by covered wagon. Some came to claim homesteads, settle
ranches, or dirt farms. Later, some came by stage. But many of our heroes and
heroines arrived in Wylder by choice or by happenstance, via the railroad.
In Wyoming,
it was the Union Pacific. It came to Wyoming in 1867, not long before the first
of our stories are set. It’s hard to estimate the influence the railroad must
have had on day-to-day life. Travel across distances never before imagined
became not only possible, but relatively comfortable. Goods must have increased
in both availability and variety. And, as is proved by our Wylder characters,
folks had a way to spread West far more readily.
Of course, since
there are two sides to everything, the railroad invited not only honest,
hard-earned expansion, but far more nefarious activities. Bandits who regularly
held up stage coaches decided to try their luck with robbing trains, also. Some
were actually called Railroad Highwaymen. Now, to me as a historical romance
writer, a Highwayman is a romantic figure indeed, with a flowing black cape,
perhaps, and pistol butts that, in the words of Alfred Noyes, twinkle in the
moonlight when he rides. But the men who held up trains were hard and
desperate, and utterly dangerous. Only imagine possessing the temerity to try
and stop 100 tons of steaming, snorting metal!
That isn’t
to say my author’s brain couldn’t imagine that one such man might be handsome,
and more than a little dashing. Hmmm, I think there might be a Wylder story in
there, somewhere, for an enterprising author to write. It’s only fair, since
just as the railroad built the West, we’ve all come together to build this
place we know as Wylder. Let’s fire up our imaginations, and set the throttle
on full bore, because in my opinion, there just can’t be enough Wylder stories.
Enjoyable post, Laura. Yep, one of those trails came up from the south, not for settlers, but for cattle to reach the northern and eastern markets. The Goodnight-Loving trail, began in Texas. Some say the story of those two cowboys and trailblazers formed the very loose basis of Lonesome Dove, the Larry McMurtry novel and, later, the popular TV series. Loving had died by the time our Wylder was settled, but Goodnight continued driving herds north for a time thereafter. The Union Pacific played a major part in getting those cattle back east to market.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post and so true! Without transportation expanding the west settlement would have been much slower.
ReplyDeleteLove this post! Thank you, Laura!
ReplyDelete