Reports Of Explorations And Surveys To Ascertain The Most Practicable And Economical Route For A Railroad From The Mississippi River To The Pacific Ocean Volume Volume 8

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This classic report is a comprehensive survey of the feasibility of building a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. It includes detailed maps, photographs, and technical reports that will be of interest to historians and engineers alike. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

“Isaac Stevens was most often in the center of activity, providing leadership, spewing out orders and ideas, shaping events, or creating controversy. He was a man either loved or hated.”--Kent D. Richards. Washington Territory's first governor remains as controversial today as he was to his frontier contemporaries during the Pacific Northwest's most turbulent era--the mid-1850s. Indian wars, martial law, and bitter political disputes, as well as the establishment of a new, sound governmental system, characterized Isaac I. Stevens's years as governor (1853-1857). Richards's definitive biography is one of the essential works on the history of early Washington, as well as northern Idaho and western Montana. An 1839 West Point graduate, Stevens pursued an exciting and useful career for his country. He was as much at ease on horseback in the wilderness as he was in government halls at the nation's capitol. With the possible exception of the Flathead Council, Richards counters the popular misconception that Stevens acted with haste in forcing treaties on regional tribes, thus precipitating the hostilities in 1855. In addition to serving as Washington's territorial governor, superintendent of Indian affairs, and, eventually, delegate to the U.S. Congress, Stevens also distinguished himself in the Mexican War, the Coast Survey, and as head of the Northern Pacific transcontinental railroad survey. In the early years of the Civil War, he was appointed a major general in the Union Army. Dying as flamboyantly as he had lived, Stevens fell while charging with banner in hand toward rebel fortifications on the very battlefield where his son lay wounded. He left an indelible mark on the destiny of the Pacific Northwest. This revised edition offers a new preface.