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Hell on Wheels: Wicked Towns Along the Union Pacific Railroad
Overnight settlements, better known as "Hell on Wheels," sprang up as the transcontinental railroad crossed Nebraska and Wyoming. They brought opportunity not only for legitimate business but also for gamblers, land speculators, prostitutes, and thugs. Dick Kreck tells their stories along with the heroic individuals who managed, finally, to create permanent towns in the interior West.
280 pages, Paperback
First published April 19, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 2, 2017
Kreck offers an interesting glimpse in an otherwise obscure corner of research into the Wild West. The Hell on Wheels towns were essentially labor camps that moved west with the construction of the railroads. Sometimes the settlements became permanent; other times, they withered and died. The fact that these towns were overwhelmingly populated by young and single males meant that vice and rowdyism were the best descriptors for such places.
Kreck's work may appear a little superficial in that nearly half of the book describes politics, emigration, and general western expansion. The meat and potatoes of the book start rather late when he begins to cover the building of the railroad from Omaha. The fact is that there are precious few resources that cover these towns when they were worker camps. Kreck does an admirable job documenting the Bear River City Riot, the lynchings of Ace Moore and his confederates, and generally displays how wild these towns were. Each chapter is well documented with cross-references. The later chapters on each town is a bit sparse in the documentation; but Kreck has certain performed a lot of research.
The background information about traveling to the west is informative and emotional. A lot of his primary sources discuss the heartache of moving all possessions across the American Desert. He does not glorify the Oregon Trail. He pretty much condemns it and argues for the need for a railroad. Even though this information is readily available, it is doubtful that many students familiar with it
He could have covered more about the political aspect of the railroads. He only offered one brief chapter on the Union Pacific and the Cred Mobelier scandal. I still do not really understand the scandal, or the near constant poverty of the railroads, both cornerstones of the book in that Kreck lays out that the railroads were desperate for government cash to pay their laborers. And the mad dash across the plains and mountains is what led to the temporariness of the towns.
Overall, the book is a fascinating look into a seemingly lawless community that moved with the railroad. I was hoping to learn more about the operators; but maybe that information simply does not exist. Kreck does not identify anyone comparable with Al Swearengen from HBO's Deadwood. Ace Moore is really the only bad guy that Kreck identifies, and only as the victim of a lynching. Kreck should be commended for finding the documents and photographs that he had found. Readers will learn something about the west.
Kreck's work may appear a little superficial in that nearly half of the book describes politics, emigration, and general western expansion. The meat and potatoes of the book start rather late when he begins to cover the building of the railroad from Omaha. The fact is that there are precious few resources that cover these towns when they were worker camps. Kreck does an admirable job documenting the Bear River City Riot, the lynchings of Ace Moore and his confederates, and generally displays how wild these towns were. Each chapter is well documented with cross-references. The later chapters on each town is a bit sparse in the documentation; but Kreck has certain performed a lot of research.
The background information about traveling to the west is informative and emotional. A lot of his primary sources discuss the heartache of moving all possessions across the American Desert. He does not glorify the Oregon Trail. He pretty much condemns it and argues for the need for a railroad. Even though this information is readily available, it is doubtful that many students familiar with it
He could have covered more about the political aspect of the railroads. He only offered one brief chapter on the Union Pacific and the Cred Mobelier scandal. I still do not really understand the scandal, or the near constant poverty of the railroads, both cornerstones of the book in that Kreck lays out that the railroads were desperate for government cash to pay their laborers. And the mad dash across the plains and mountains is what led to the temporariness of the towns.
Overall, the book is a fascinating look into a seemingly lawless community that moved with the railroad. I was hoping to learn more about the operators; but maybe that information simply does not exist. Kreck does not identify anyone comparable with Al Swearengen from HBO's Deadwood. Ace Moore is really the only bad guy that Kreck identifies, and only as the victim of a lynching. Kreck should be commended for finding the documents and photographs that he had found. Readers will learn something about the west.
September 20, 2020
There is an element of bait and switch with this book. Only one third of it concerns the wicked towns of the title. However, that is a good thing because these 'towns' require the proper context which Mr. Kreck ably provides. The proper subject of this book is how technology drastically change how the West was settled but this didn't result in more civilized behavior of the settlers.
The book starts with the revolution in travel that began just before and during the California Gold Rush. The author depicts the harsh and unsanitary conditions underlying the spread of disease and death that came with such strenuous travel. He debunks the idea that this was the period of savage Native American attacks on the settlers. In those early years, there was more harmonious relations with the Native Americans willing to give these early settlers the benefit of the doubt. As disease and displacement clearly resulted from the rapid settler migration that changed but only when the callous disregard of the Native American and their lands became acute and inadequately addressed.
The core of the book concerns the Union Pacific railroads push to build the railroad from East to West starting in Omaha Nebraska. We are told that the Central Pacific was moving West to East and the men employed were mostly Chinese. Culturally the Chinese didn't react to the harsh conditions of building a railroad with criminal behavior and debauchery. They were more focused on sending the money they earned back to their families in China for them to flourish. But the mostly white, single and often ethnic workforce of the Union Pacific were more unruly and rapacious. The railroads would create towns at the end point for the railroad and sell lots to settlers promising that this town would boom and prosper as a critical stop on the only intercontinental railroad to the ultimate promise land of California. There would be a small group of sober and respectable people that would fall for the enticement of the creation of the next St. Louis or Kansas City. However, the population that showed up in these towns were proprietors of saloons, brothels and dance halls. This would entice workers to swarm these towns; get rip-roaring drunk, pick or join fights and end up in the company of 'fallen' women.
This pattern repeated itself over and over. Most of these boom towns became ghost towns or disappeared completely once the railroad workers moved on. There is a larger point here being made about the nature of 19th century America. Many of the Europeans who came to this country were looking for easy riches and satisfaction of their various appetites. This was the underside of the American dream that we're told form the basis of our nation and which justifies our fervent belief in its greatness. The individual was 'free' to make something of himself. That freedom often expressed itself through greed, violence, waste and mindlessness. This is the freedom created by and for men and which satisfied the desires of a certain kind of 'white' man. This is the id which we have cemented over in the past century but which still supplies much of the energy for the MAGA movement that supports Trump today. It is easy to imagine him as the brash, fraudulent leader luring desperate men to the mirage of a Western boomtown.
The book starts with the revolution in travel that began just before and during the California Gold Rush. The author depicts the harsh and unsanitary conditions underlying the spread of disease and death that came with such strenuous travel. He debunks the idea that this was the period of savage Native American attacks on the settlers. In those early years, there was more harmonious relations with the Native Americans willing to give these early settlers the benefit of the doubt. As disease and displacement clearly resulted from the rapid settler migration that changed but only when the callous disregard of the Native American and their lands became acute and inadequately addressed.
The core of the book concerns the Union Pacific railroads push to build the railroad from East to West starting in Omaha Nebraska. We are told that the Central Pacific was moving West to East and the men employed were mostly Chinese. Culturally the Chinese didn't react to the harsh conditions of building a railroad with criminal behavior and debauchery. They were more focused on sending the money they earned back to their families in China for them to flourish. But the mostly white, single and often ethnic workforce of the Union Pacific were more unruly and rapacious. The railroads would create towns at the end point for the railroad and sell lots to settlers promising that this town would boom and prosper as a critical stop on the only intercontinental railroad to the ultimate promise land of California. There would be a small group of sober and respectable people that would fall for the enticement of the creation of the next St. Louis or Kansas City. However, the population that showed up in these towns were proprietors of saloons, brothels and dance halls. This would entice workers to swarm these towns; get rip-roaring drunk, pick or join fights and end up in the company of 'fallen' women.
This pattern repeated itself over and over. Most of these boom towns became ghost towns or disappeared completely once the railroad workers moved on. There is a larger point here being made about the nature of 19th century America. Many of the Europeans who came to this country were looking for easy riches and satisfaction of their various appetites. This was the underside of the American dream that we're told form the basis of our nation and which justifies our fervent belief in its greatness. The individual was 'free' to make something of himself. That freedom often expressed itself through greed, violence, waste and mindlessness. This is the freedom created by and for men and which satisfied the desires of a certain kind of 'white' man. This is the id which we have cemented over in the past century but which still supplies much of the energy for the MAGA movement that supports Trump today. It is easy to imagine him as the brash, fraudulent leader luring desperate men to the mirage of a Western boomtown.
December 25, 2019
A wealth of information about the impact of the transcontinental railroad on the American West. Unfortunately this book did not contain the information that I was looking for. Still an awesome read for the amateur historians in ones life.
December 23, 2020
Dick Kreck's Hell on Wheels: Wicked Towns along the Union Pacific Railroad is the story of the hard-drinking, straight-shooting, vice-filled little places where early railroad men lost their money - and sometimes their lives. As Kreck so succinctly notes, the Union Pacific "employed thousands of Civil War veterans, tough, battle-hardened men who knew the joys of whiskey-drinking and fighting and partook of both whenever they could" (p. 111).
Still, it would be accurate to say that Hell on Wheels is more about the role of the railroads in how-the-west-was-won than it is about any individual hell-on-wheels town that popped up as the rails went down. In the space of only thirty years, the West - with its millions of bison and war-whooping Indians and unbroken vistas of prairie grass - vanished. And so, as interesting as these little towns might be, my favorite chapters were the early ones that described the early settler experience with the west (my God, I would have been a terrible pioneer) and especially the overland journey before the railroad came, when wagon trains stretched miles long across the prairie. (What can I say; I played a lot of Oregon Trail as a kid.)
Hell on Wheels is eminently readable. Kreck makes liberal use of primary sources and, even more delightfully, period photography. Yet, with few exceptions, this book fails to capture the spirit of the men - and they were almost all men - who made the railways and the company towns and, in doing so, tamed the West.
Still, it would be accurate to say that Hell on Wheels is more about the role of the railroads in how-the-west-was-won than it is about any individual hell-on-wheels town that popped up as the rails went down. In the space of only thirty years, the West - with its millions of bison and war-whooping Indians and unbroken vistas of prairie grass - vanished. And so, as interesting as these little towns might be, my favorite chapters were the early ones that described the early settler experience with the west (my God, I would have been a terrible pioneer) and especially the overland journey before the railroad came, when wagon trains stretched miles long across the prairie. (What can I say; I played a lot of Oregon Trail as a kid.)
Hell on Wheels is eminently readable. Kreck makes liberal use of primary sources and, even more delightfully, period photography. Yet, with few exceptions, this book fails to capture the spirit of the men - and they were almost all men - who made the railways and the company towns and, in doing so, tamed the West.
February 13, 2018
An interesting read about the railroad being built and all the towns that sprang up because of the railroad workers. That brought swindlers, prostitutes, criminals out en masse. Most of these towns disappeared later but several survived.
August 22, 2020
Very interesting!!
January 16, 2022
Interesting stories along the Transcontinental Railroad
July 2, 2024
A very eye opening tale of the cropped up towns along the Union Pacific Railroad construction sites as it moved west.
March 23, 2025
Extremely informative, beginning with the journey to the west by covered wagon all the way to travel by train. It was packed with information, but the overall read tended to be dry in many areas as well as repetitive.
March 15, 2023
Good historical read if you want to learn more about Union Pacific and how the railroads shaped the states and towns it went through.
December 10, 2013
I especially enjoyed reading about the towns that sprung up at the end of the line in the process of building the railroad across Wyoming. Some of the towns I've been to and others are now ghost towns at best or they have disappeared altogether.
Dick Kreck starts by explaining the torturous trip by wagons and the hardships the people faced. Then he describes the advantages that rail travel brought and at what cost.
Kreck followed the whole route and visited each town along the way as part of his research. The book is listed as nonfiction, but the stories about lynching, Indian attacks, etc. are more like fiction, except the incidence actually happened. His research is meticulous. One can not read Hell on Wheels without a growing admiration for those who went before us.
Dick Kreck starts by explaining the torturous trip by wagons and the hardships the people faced. Then he describes the advantages that rail travel brought and at what cost.
Kreck followed the whole route and visited each town along the way as part of his research. The book is listed as nonfiction, but the stories about lynching, Indian attacks, etc. are more like fiction, except the incidence actually happened. His research is meticulous. One can not read Hell on Wheels without a growing admiration for those who went before us.
September 3, 2019
This was an interesting and well-researched look into the social history of building the Union Pacific's stretch of the transcontinental railroad, from Omaha to Promontory Point, Utah. After the title, the more broad history provided in the first half of the book feels like the reader is being cheated, but the rich detail provided in the chapters about individual towns makes up for it. The chapters feel a little like they were written as individual essays, and some repeat details from others. The abundant sourcing, bibliography, and photos, however, cover a multitude of sins, and this is shaping up to be a very useful source.
January 29, 2014
Kreck moves this true story along swiftly, just as swiftly as the Transcontinental Railroad was built. Instead of getting bogged down in a lot of the "boring" details, Kreck focuses on the lively characters and events that made the Wild West such a fun place to be (at least in our modern imaginations). He dispels some common myths about the West and about the railroad, and even the most seasoned American history buffs will learn something new. A humorous and engaging read.
March 12, 2018
A look about how the Union Pacific Railroad was built. Towns that came and went as the railroad was built. How it was financed, the politics and methods used as well as the attitude toward the native peoples along the route were all explored. How it changed the look of our nation’s expansion was discussed.
January 10, 2014
Read for a book group. Others loved it but I thought it was rather simplistic look at the subject. Maybe I've read too much on the subject.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews