Ties, Rails, and Telegraph Wires: Railroads and Communities in Montana and the West

by Dale Martin

The railroad brought more to Montana and the West than passengers and a quicker way to get back to “civilization.” The coming of the new “iron horse” revitalized existing towns, created new ones, and brought new jobs on the trains and in the communities through which it passed. Ties, Rails, and Telegraph Wires provides a window into the lives of the railroad workers and local people―all who lived with the railroad and relied on the employment and services it offered. Meet the engineers, firemen, conductors, water tank operators, station agents, telegraphers, and section crews, as well as the town folk who came to count on the railroad for transportation near and far, sending and receiving freight, and moving the U.S. Mail. The book includes stories about the railroad told by such western writers as Ivan Doig, Mary Clearman Blue, and Alice Munro, and features dozens of railroad-related historic photographs. Let Ties, Rails, and Telegraph Wires put a face and a place to “Waiting for a train.”

196 pages, Paperback

Published June 5, 2018

About the author

Dale Martin is a copywriter by trade and has owned his own creative advertising agency since 1989. After 30+ years of writing thousands of brochures, print ads, and radio and TV commercials, Dale has turned to his true passion -- writing and telling stories. His goal now is to approach the business of novel writing with the same enthusiasm that led him to start his own agency at the wise-old age of just 27. He wants to tell stories that entertain people, excite them along the way, make them think, and hopefully -- in the end -- inspire them, if even just a little.

Dale currently lives in a suburb of St. Louis, MO with his wife.

Reviews

[Greatbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dale Martin teaches history at Montana State University in Bozeman. It is easy to see from this book why Professor Martin’s Montana and the West class was far and away the most popular class in the history department when I was a student. In this excellent short history of Montana’s trains and their infrastructure, Professor Martin goes far beyond the state-requested historic context study at the project’s core. With his signature blend of broad historical context, fine illustrations, and precise and accurate mechanical detail, all softened by a little human interest, Martin has created a readable, enjoyable and yet highly historically rigorous volume that will serve historians, buffs, students and professionals equally well. The photographs and railroad posters reproduced here complement the text and make this reader at least wish for a much larger format. I hope Ties, Trails and Telegraph Wires is sold in every museum and bookstore in the state

[Luis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, place-focused entry in the genre of “tech changes us”, sub-category “transportation tech changes us”. The amazing use of archival photography separates this from many other, drier, less human books of the genre, and I recommend it for that reason-the photography often evokes what mere words can’t.

Besides the pictures, the book is at its best when it sparkles with little stories and data that make this a particularly Montana book, evoking how the state’s size and emptiness made the railroad so important and it’s usage different from how people in other states may think of this. For example, from page 34: “During their
twelve-hour run between Havre and Williston, North Dakota, a distance of 309 miles, [a pair of daily local trains] stopped at up to sixty-one places, of which fifty-six were in Montana … in places ranging in size from the incorporated town of Wolf Point, with 2,098 residents, to the unincorporated rural district of Madras, with a population of 64. In 2018, representative of modern-day America, daily scheduled intercity trains, buses, and airplanes served only forty-two towns and cities in the entire state of Montana.”

I do wish it had more of these striking details and data; someone who has spent much time thinking about the general class of problems it discusses and is looking for more specific examples may leave wanting more. But to capture the flavor of what trains were in this place and time, it does a great job.