Situated at the junction of the North Platte and South Platte rivers, North Platte has a long history as an important stopping point in the westward migration of from the days of the California gold rush to the building of the transcontinental railroad and beyond. The Oregon Trail to the gold rush followed the South Platte River, and the Mormon Trail followed the North Platte River. In 1866 the building of the Union Pacific railroad stopped at North Platte for the winter. The railroad brought the town of North Platte to life.

In 1869 the Union Pacific built a huge depot and hotel which stood until destroyed by fire in 1915. It entertained many famous visitors including William F. Cody, George Armstrong Custer, Bat Masterson, and Teddy Roosevelt. Since the 1920s North Platte has grown considerably, helped by the transcontinental Lincoln Highway which still runs through town. North Platte also had the first lighted runway in the United States, used for the air mail planes of the 1920s.

The ballad "John Henry" is the most recorded folk song in American history and John Henry-the mighty railroad man who could blast through rock faster than a steam drill-is a towering figure in our culture. But for over a century, no one knew who the original John Henry was-or even if there was a real John Henry. In Steel Drivin' Man, Scott Reynolds Nelson recounts the true story of the man behind the iconic American hero, telling the poignant tale of a young Virginia convict who died working on one of the most dangerous enterprises of the time, the first rail route through the Appalachian Mountains. Using census data, penitentiary reports, and railroad company reports, Nelson reveals how John Henry, victimized by Virginia's notorious Black Codes, was shipped to the infamous Richmond Penitentiary to become prisoner number 497, and was forced to labor on the mile-long Lewis Tunnel for the C&O railroad. Nelson even confirms the legendary contest between John Henry and the steam drill (there was indeed a steam drill used to dig the Lewis Tunnel and the convicts in fact drilled faster). Equally important, Nelson masterfully captures the life of the ballad of John Henry, tracing the song's evolution from the first printed score by blues legend W. C. Handy, to Carl Sandburg's use of the ballad to become the first "folk singer," to the upbeat version by Tennessee Ernie Ford. We see how the American Communist Party appropriated the image of John Henry as the idealized American worker, and even how John Henry became the precursor of such comic book super heroes as Superman or Captain America. Attractively illustrated with numerous images, Steel Drivin' Man offers a marvelous portrait of a beloved folk song-and a true American legend.

Chatham is a historic Cape Cod town with coastline on Nantucket Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. The first European settler, William Nickerson, recognized its beauty and knew that farming and fishing would provide sustenance for future settlers. Chatham has many stories to tell-tales of boating and fishing, railroads and hotels, churches and theaters, shipwrecks and rescues, and wireless communication and war efforts. With vivid photographs, Chatham brings the town to life from the early 1800s to the 1960s. In these pages, see Chatham's lighthouse, which has warned of treacherous sandbars off the coast and has witnessed hundreds of shipwrecks since 1808, and the Mack Monument, which memorializes one valiant rescue. Visit the South Chatham Village Hall, which has rocked with laughter at Silver Circle entertainments; the Fourth of July parades; the 1912 and 1962 festivities celebrating Chatham's incorporation; and the weekly summer band concerts. Learn how technology changed Chatham from the arrival of the railroad and the building of the Marconi Wireless Station to the construction of the Chatham Naval Air Station, with its blimps and seaplanes protecting the East Coast from German submarines during World War I.