To Order: Contact the WNPA Bookstore at Golden Spike NHS at 1-435-471-2209 Ext. 22 or write to Golden Spike NHS, WNPA Bookstore, P.O. Box 897, Brigham City, Utah 84302.

You can check out the WNPA headquarters and bookstore at: Western National Parks Association.

Nothing Like it in the World is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad---the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the engineers and surveyors who risked, and lost, their lives; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other laborers who did the backbreaking and dangerous work on the tracks. Ambrose writes with power and eloquence about the brave men---the famous and the unheralded, ordinary men doing the extraordinary---who accomplished the spectacular feat that made the continent into a nation. Paperback, 431 pages, 60 photos: $16.00

It was the dawn of the Gilded Age; it welded the new western United States to the East with twin band of iron; it opened a path for settlement and exploitation, utterly changed the West as it doomed the Plains Indian culture. After the Civil War, it was the century's most transformative chain of events. Beginning in 1842 with a visionary's dream to span the continent with a single railroad line, Empire Express captures three dramatic decades in which the United States effectively doubled its size, fought three wars, and began to discover a new national identity. Culminating in the driving of the Golden Spike in the Utah desert in 1869, which touched off a frenzy of celebration, the narrative ends in 1873 in Washington under the Capitol rotunda, with the crushing fall of a popular politician and the exposure of a powerful, hidden railroad lobby---a scandal, which, for half a year, dominated the press and the country's imagination. Paperback, 797 pages, 63 photos: $20.00

In February 1854 the first railroad from the East reached Mississippi. By the end of the nineteenth century, five major transcontinental railroads linked the East Coast with the Pacific Ocean, and thousands of miles of tracks crisscrossed in the West, a vast and virginal land just a few years before. The building of America's transcontinental railroads is a story of breathtaking ingenuity, otherworldly idealism, and all-too-worldly greed. The heroes and villains were Irish and Chinese laborers, intrepid engineers, avaricious bankers, stock manipulators, and corrupt politicians. Before it was over, more than 155 million acres - one tenth of the country - were given away to the railroad magnates, Indian tribes were decimated, the buffalo were driven from the Great Plains, millions of immigrants were lured from Europe, and a colossal continental nation was built. Paperback, 311 pages, $15.00

When the telegrapher's three dots---DONE---flashed coast to coast from Promontory Summit, Utah, at 12:47 p.m. on May 10, 1869, rails from east to west were joined and the Pacific Railroad had become a reality. It had been long in coming. Despite virtually unanimous public sentiment a Pacific Railroad, almost four decades of debate and discussion, liberally dosed with meaningless oratory, preceded the driving of the last spike. Within a matter of months after the introduction of the steam locomotive to the United States in 1830, farsighted men conceived the idea of a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific. By mid-century, after a rail network had spread over the East and Midwest to the Mississippi River, a railroad connect this network with the West Coast became a great public issue. Those who advocated the road saw both its necessity and the immediate benefits it would bring to the Nation. But only a few, and they vaguely, understood the vast influence a Pacific Railroad would have on the continental development of the United States. Paperback, 62 pages, 36 pictures: $5.00 (not currently available)

Dining Cars and Depots, Train Food in America explores aspects of "train mania," concentrating particularly on the food connected with railroading.  The focus is on food served to railroad passengers, including that sold at the stations, Harvey Houses, on board, and also some food provided at special events connected with significant railroad history.  A few recipies included. Paperback, 37 pages: $3.50

	The Golden Spike National Historic Site book gives a brief overview of the history of the transcontinental railroad.  It also tells the story of one womans' attempt to get Golden Spike recognized as a national historic site.  The end of the book gives information on what there is to see and do at the historic site today. Paperback, 14 pages, 19 pictures: $3.95
	Rebirth of the Jupiter and the 119 provides a firsthand account of the reproduction of the Jupiter and 119, the two steam locomotives that met face-to-face at Promontory at the historic point where the rails joined.  These exact working replicas of the 1868 locomotives provide a tangible link to the lagacy of the railroad that tied a nation together. Paperback, 48 pages, 43 pictures: $2.95
	The Central Pacific Railroad written by Charles Nordhoff in 1882 is the story of building the line across the Sierra Nevada of California, the deserts of Nevada, and the salt flats of Utah to meet the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory Point, May 10, 1869. Paperback, 48 pages, 49 pictures: $4.95
	The Iron Trail to the Golden Spike, is a history of America's first transcontinental railroad, before, during and after the driving of the Last Spike.  The author's unique style makes this book as entertaining as it is informative.  It is tinged with a humor that invites folks of all ages to read it again and again.  Like the Golden Spike itself, this book is truly a treasure.   Hardback, 297 pages, 64 pictures: $15.00
	This monograph presents a history and description of a segment of the first transcontinental railroad completed on May 10, 1869, and owned, in Utah, by the Central Pacific Railroad Company.  A portion of the original grade, now abandoned, follows a route eastward from Ogden.  The completion of the Lucin Cutoff between Lucin and Ogden, in Utah, diverted rail Branch and received only sporadic use after 1904.  Soon the railroad facilities were removed and the dependent towns abandoned.  The rails of the Promontory Branch were finally taken up in 1942. This study concentrates on the continuous segment of the abandoned grade, traversing considerable portions of public land, between Lucin and Promontory Summit.  Recognizing its role in the management and protection of America's cultural heritage, the Bureau of Land Management initiated the study that has culminated in this monograph. Paperback, 134 pages, 110 pictures: $14.95
	A reenactment script for the Golden Spike Ceremony.  The script is based on extensive research in primary historical sources.  Fortunately, many of the nation's newspapers sent correspondents to report on the original events at Promontory Summit, Utah.  Most of the speeches that were made that day were distributed in written form to the press for publication.  This is the script used by the reenactment cast here at Golden Spike National Historic Site. Paperback, 12 pages, 11 pictures: $2.00

Charles Savage emigrated to America in 1855 with a group of Mormon Swiss.  Savage was an accomplished and prolific photographer who lived successfully within Salt Lake City and traveled throughout the West taking photographs.  Savage took several of the Wset's most famous images at the celebration of the joining of the transcontinental railroads at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869.  Savage also took the first photographs of what became Zion National Park and recorded the construction of Mormon shrines such as the Temple and Tabernacle.  His photographs were sold throughout the United States and internationally.  His career spanned over fifty years, from pioneer days past the turn of the century. Paperback, 182 pages, 132 pictures: $25.00