The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers

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The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers Page 43

by Simon Winchester


  Swift, Earl. The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2011.

  Tarbell, Ida. Owen D. Young: A New Type of Industrial Leader. New York: Macmillan, 1932.

  Taylor, Nick. American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA, When FDR Put the Nation to Work. New York: Bantam, 2008.

  Thompson, Robert Luther. Wiring a Continent: The History of the Telegraph Industry in the United States, 1832–1866. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1947.

  Trollope, Anthony. North America. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1862; London: Penguin, 1968.

  Twain, Mark. Autobiography of Mark Twain, ed. Robert H. Hirst. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

  Unruh, John D., Jr. The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840–1860. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979.

  US Army Corps of Engineers. Upper Mississippi Navigation Charts. Rock Island, IL: US Army Corps of Engineers, 1989.

  US Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States, various volumes, 1878–2012. Washington, DC: US Department of Commerce.

  Vare, Robert, ed. The American Idea: The Best of the Atlantic Monthly. New York: Doubleday, 2007.

  Wallace, Henry A., ed. Farmers in a Changing World: The Yearbook of Agriculture. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, 1940.

  Warren, Leonard. Maclure of New Harmony: Scientist, Progressive Educator, Radical Philanthropist. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009.

  Webster, Bob, and Mike Webster. Lewis and Clark by Air: A Pictorial Tour of the Historic Lewis and Clark Trail. Pryor, OK: Via Planes, 2003.

  Weiland, Matt, and Sean Wilsey, eds. State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.

  Whitaker, Rogers E. M., and Anthony Hiss. All Aboard with E. M. Frimbo: World’s Greatest Railroad Buff. New York: Kodansha, 1997.

  White, Owen P. Texas: An Informal Biography. New York: Putnam, 1945.

  White, Richard. Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. New York: Norton, 2011.

  Wilkins, Thurman. Clarence King: A Biography. New York: Macmillan, 1958.

  Winchester, Simon. American Heartbeat: Notes from a Midwestern Journey. London: Faber & Faber, 1976.

  Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

  Woodard, Colin. American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. New York: Viking, 2011.

  Woodworth, Steven E. Manifest Destinies: America’s Westward Expansion and the Road to the Civil War. New York: Knopf, 2010.

  Worster, Donald. A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

  Wright, Constance. Fanny Kemble and the Lovely Land. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1972.

  Ziak, Rex. In Full View: A True and Accurate Account of Lewis and Clark’s Arrival at the Pacific Ocean, and Their Search for a Winter Camp along the Lower Columbia River. Astoria, OR: Moffitt House Press, 2002.

  Zittrain, Jonathan. The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.

  INDEX

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.

  Note: Entries pertaining to footnotes are indicated by the suffix “n” (e.g., 35n).

  Adams, Donna (pseudonym, actress), 289

  Adams, Henry, 140, 141, 347

  Adams, John Quincy, 84, 95, 100

  Adams, Samuel (mountebank), 111

  Adams, Samuel (President), xiii

  airplanes/air travel

  beginnings of an industry, 315–16

  early cross-country flight, 316–27

  Lindbergh crossing Atlantic, 318n

  9/11 terrorist attacks, 312–15

  nonstop crossing of the Pacific, 318n

  Whiteman Air Force Base, 26–29

  Alaska Highway, 299, 310–12

  Albany, New York, 171

  Allegheny River, 182–83

  America, unifying forces in

  automobiles, 237

  Canal Era in America, 413

  earth, xxi

  electricity/electric lights, 385

  ethnicity, xvi–xviii

  fire, xxii

  Internet, 425–28

  Lewis and Clark expedition, xix

  metal, xxii

  Mississippi River, 227–29

  race/race relations, xvii, 403

  radio, 395–96, 402–3, 406, 413, 416

  railroads, 237, 257–58, 413

  rivers/river exploration, 229–30

  roads/roadways/road building, 413

  steam/steam engines, 237

  telegraph, 349–51, 413

  television, 407–8, 413–14

  water, xxi–xxii

  wood, xxi

  American Academy of Natural Sciences, 79, 84

  American Broadcasting Company (ABC), 397–98

  American colonialism

  about English feudalism and, 9

  British expansion following Treaty of Paris, 178–88

  French territory in America, 16, 175–78

  Philippines and Pacific Islands, 100

  roadbuilding efforts, 241–44

  role of river exploration, 165–71

  American Guide Series, xxiii–xxiv

  American National Biography, 252

  American Philosophical Society, 79

  American Revolutionary War, 180–81, 190

  American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 354–55

  Ames, Iowa, 287, 297–98

  Anderson, Henry (lawyer), 328

  Anderson, Sherwood (author), 429

  Andrews, Christopher Columbus, xxvi

  Angel, John and Mary (residents of Paradise), 223

  Anthony, Susan B. (suffragette), 295

  Appalachian Mountains

  as western boundary of U.S., 7–8

  colonial settlements beyond, 9, 176, 198

  crossing Eastern Divide, 181–84

  exploration to “fall line,” 169–70

  explorations beyond “fall line,” 175–80

  geological survey, 80–83, 93

  “April Snow” (Zapruder), 238

  Arkansas River, 176

  Armour, J. Ogden (businessman), 317–18

  Armour, Philip Danforth (businessman), 316–17

  Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. See U.S. Army

  Arnold, Philip (con man), 143–50

  Arrowsmith, Aaron (mapmaker), 81n

  Astor, John Jacob (businessman), 70

  Astoria, Oregon, 70–71

  Atlantic Monthly (magazine), 153

  atomic weapons. See nuclear weapons

  Augusta, Maine, 171

  automobiles

  beginning American industry, 295–96

  challenges of cross-country travel, 279–80

  development of an industry, 295–96

  federal funding of roads, 282–83

  replacing rail travel, 278–79

  unifying role in America, 237

  See also roads/roadways/road building

  B-2 Stealth bombers, 28

  Bailey, Edd (railroad president), 277–78

  Bailey Yard, Nebraska, 277–78

  Baldwin, Loammi, Jr. and Sr. (engineers), 189–93

  Ball, Lucille (actress), 414

  Bangor, Maine, 170–71

  Barrin, Roland-Michel (Marquis de La Galissonière), 176–78

  Battle Lake, Wyoming, 358–59

  Battle of Fallen Timbers, 19

  Battle of the Little Big Horn (1876), 46–47

  Bell, Alexander Graham, 351–57

  Bell Telephone Hour (radio program), 398

  Bell Telephone Laboratories, 409

  Belloc, Hilaire (poet), 328
/>   “The Benefits of the Electric Light” (Belloc), 328

  Berners-Lee, Tim (Internet pioneer), 424

  Blake, W. P. (explorer), 94

  Bonaparte, Napoleon, 13, 16–17

  Bonneville, Benjamin (trapper/explorer), 94

  Boston, Massachusetts, 193–94

  Bradley, George (Powell expedition survivor), 120, 128

  Branley, Éduoard (inventor), 387

  Brinkley, David (broadcast journalist), 414–15

  Buchanan, James (president), 263, 348

  Buffalo, New York, 206

  Burnham, Daniel (World’s Fair planner), 374

  California

  development of railroads, 261

  Gold Rush of 1848, 263–64

  Great Diamond Fraud (1872), 139, 143–51

  Survey of 1864, 140–41

  California Trail, 24, 292

  Calzecchi Onesti, Temistocle (physicist/inventor), 386

  Canada

  British exploration, 18

  building Alaska Highway, 299, 310–12

  establishment as British possession, 176–78

  fur trading/fur trappers, 62

  surveying U.S. boundary with, 107

  Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), 401

  Canal Era in America

  early American efforts, 186–87, 189–95

  engineering techniques and problems, 188–89, 192–93

  Erie Canal, beginning plans, 196–203

  Erie Canal, building phase, 203–6

  Erie Canal, celebrating completion, 206–9

  Erie Canal, revisiting, 209–14

  linking Chicago to Mississippi River, 214–22

  Panama Canal, 201n, 205

  unifying role in America, 413

  Washington’s role in, 180, 185–86, 187–88

  See also water

  Carroll, Charles (signer of Declaration of Independence), 254

  Carson, Christopher H. “Kit” (frontiersman), 94

  Carson, Johnny (television entertainer), 407, 408, 412

  Carter, Jimmy, 26

  Cartier, Jacques (explorer), 165, 169

  cartography. See geological survey and mapping

  Carver, George Washington (former slave, educator), 288

  Cather, Willa (author), 38

  Céloron de Blainville, Pierre-Joseph de (French naval officer), 176–78

  Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Company. See Pony Express

  Central Pacific Railroad, 117, 266, 267–77. See also transcontinental railroad

  Cerf, Vint (Internet pioneer), 422–23

  Charbonneau, Jean-Baptiste “Pomp” (son of Sacagawea), 51

  Charbonneau, Toussaint (fur trapper), 49–50

  Charles II (king of England), 241

  Charleston, South Carolina, 192

  Chicago, Illinois

  linking Great Lakes to Mississippi River, 214–22

  as railroad hub, 257, 317

  World’s Fair of 1892, 374–75

  China

  immigrant role in railroad construction, 269–73

  searching for ocean passage to, 168, 169n

  US Exclusion Act of 1882, 269n

  US wartime assistance, 100

  Yangtze comparison to Mississippi River, 230

  Citizen Kane (movie, 1941), 377

  City upon a Hill sermon (Winthrop, 1630), 30

  Civil War

  American unity tested by, xvi–xviii

  disruption of western exploration, 103–4, 106, 108, 129

  impact on railroad expansion, 255, 257–58

  Irish immigration for service in, 271

  secession and beginning of, 348–49

  Clark, William (explorer), 21–23, 32–33, 39. See also Lewis and Clark expedition

  Clay, Henry (presidential candidate), 345

  Clemens, Samuel. See Twain, Mark

  Clinton, DeWitt (NY governor), 202–3, 207–8

  coal/coal deposits, 53–54, 88–90, 93–95

  Cody, William (“Buffalo Bill”), 271, 278, 335

  Colden, Cadwallader (surveyor), 198

  Colles, Christopher (inventor), 198, 242, 249

  colonialism. See American colonialism

  Colorado, Great Diamond Fraud, 148–50, 152–53

  Colorado River, discovery and exploration, 115–29, 173–74

  Columbia, South Carolina, 192

  Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), 397–98

  Columbia River, discovery and exploration, 174–75

  Columbian Exposition (World’s Fair of 1892), 374–75

  communications. See mail/postal service; telegraph; telephone

  Connecticut River, 170, 191

  Continentalism and Manifest Destiny, 30–32, 100, 109

  Cooke, Morris Llewellyn (engineer), 379–81

  Copeland, Ada (wife of Clarence King/James Todd), 155–60

  Cornell, Ezra (founder of Western Union), 348n

  Coronado, Francisco, 42n, 173–74

  Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 401

  Corps of Discovery. See Lewis and Clark expedition

  Council Bluffs, Iowa, 43, 266, 270, 276–77, 289, 291, 424–25

  Coy, Wayne (FCC chair), 412

  Crazy Horse (Sioux warrior), 46

  Cronkite, Walter (broadcast journalist), 414–15

  Cumberland Trail (U.S. National Road), 243–48

  Custer, George A. (General), 46

  Dana, James (mineralogist), 94

  de Soto, Hernando (Spanish conquistador), 173

  Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, 420–21

  Delaware River, 180–81, 190, 249

  Denison, Iowa, 289–90

  Dewey, George (Admiral), 220

  Dickens, Charles (author), 225

  Douglas, Kirk (actor), 407

  Durant, Thomas (railroad president), 274–75

  Duryea, Charles and Frank (auto builders), 295–96

  Dust Bowl era, 11n, 37, 232–33, 377

  Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. See transcontinental highways

  E pluribus unum, xv, xvi, 403, 426

  earth

  as one of five classical elements, v, xx

  unifying role in America, xxi

  East Liverpool, Ohio, 10–12

  Eaton, Amos (mapmaker), 89

  Eddy, Clyde (explorer), 123n

  Edison, Thomas A. (inventor), 358, 360–69, 371–74, 385, 410–11

  Edison Electric Illuminating Company, 364, 374

  The Education of Henry Adams (Adams), 140n, 347

  educational radio stations, 396–400

  education/educational system

  attraction of William Maclure to, 76, 79, 84–85

  creation of New Harmony experiment, 85–87

  espousing a free system in America, 87

  land grant colleges, 399–400, 439–40

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (general/president), 280–94, 304–5, 308, 414

  electricity/electric lights

  birth at Battle Lake, Wyoming, 357–59

  development and marketing, 361–64

  electrification of New York City, 364–67

  electrification of rural America, 376–85

  generation and distribution, 359–61, 375–76

  unifying role in America, 385

  war over AC vs. DC, 367–69, 371–75, 410–11

  See also radio; telegraph; telephone

  Ellsworth, Annie, 346

  Ellsworth, Henry Leavitt (patent commissioner), 346

  Erie Canal

  about American efforts prior to, 189–95

  beginning plans, 196–203

  building phase, 203–6

  celebrating completion, 206–9

  impact of railroads on, 253

  revisiting, 209–14

  ethnicity, as unifying force, xvi–xviii

  Exclusion Act of 1882, 269n

  Facebook, 425

  Fall River, Maine, 171

 
Farnsworth, Philo (inventor), 410

  Farny, Henry (artist), 328, 333

  Featherstonhaugh, George (geologist), 94

  Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, 305

  Fessenden, Reginald Aubrey (engineer), 387–92, 406

  fire. See also airplanes/air travel; automobiles; steam/steam engines

  fire

  as one of five classical elements, v, xx, xxi–xxii

  unifying role in America, xxii

  See also airplanes/air travel; automobiles; steam/steam engines

  On First Seeing the Grand Canyon (Powell), 72

  “First Sight” (Larkin), 125

  Fitch, John (creator of paddleboat), 249, 251

  five classical elements, v, xx

  Floyd, Charles (Sergeant, Corps of Discovery), 43–44

  Ford, Henry (auto maker), 278, 282, 296, 298

  Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station (Nebraska), 41

  Fort Clatsop (Oregon), 70–71

  Fort Thompson, South Dakota, 39

  Four Great Surveys of the West, 112–13, 151, 160

  49th Parallel (movie), 261n

  Frankenheimer, John (television director), 407

  Franklin, Benjamin, 79, 336

  Frémont, John Charles (military officer/explorer), 94, 100, 105–6

  French and Indian War (aka Seven Years’ War), 178–79

  frontier thesis, 24–32, 377–79. See also Manifest Destiny

  Fulton, Robert (engineer/inventor), 250–51

  fur trading/fur trappers, 62, 93

  Gallatin, Albert (Treasury secretary), 195, 243

  Gallatin River, 59, 130–31

  Gardiner, James (surveyor), 148

  gender

  frontier thesis and, 30

  recognizing men for achievement, xix

  See also women

  General Electric Company (formerly Edison Electric), 374–75

  General Location of National System of Interstate Highways Including All Additional Routes at Urban Areas (the “Yellow Book”), 305–9

  geological survey and mapping

  attraction of William Maclure to, 77–80

  beginning mapping of America, 10–14, 80–83

  building Cumberland Road, 243–44

  completing mapping of the West, 104–13

  Four Great Surveys of the West, 112–13, 151, 160

  governmental role in, 89–91

  Louisiana Purchase, 16–17

  Northwest Territories, 14–16

  role of David Dale Owen, 88–91

  role of “settler movement,” 91–96

  Survey of California (1864), 140–41

  transcontinental railroad routes, 258

  US Army Corps of Engineers, 233

  Warren Map (1858), 108–10

 

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