From there he went by train, desert automobile, and stage coach to the gold fields of Nevada. Wherever he went, there was bustle, progress, and unquenchable optimism, as the frontier closed and America began to grow into the world's superpower. Brought to new life by the historian and novelist Daniel Ford.
Both Ralph D. Paine and Daniel Ford began as journalists and war correspondents, Paine in Cuba and the Boxer Rebellion, Ford in South Vietnam. In time, the younger man fell in love with Paine's granddaughter and with his early and splendid account of the American West shortly after the turn of the 20th century. Here is the book again -- edited, abridged, and annotated for the present century.