Crossroads of a Continent: Missouri Railroads, 1851-1921

Join us as Carlos Arnaldo presents a program on “Crossroads of a Continent: Missouri Railroads, 1851-1921,” a 2022 book he co-authored with Peter A. Hansen and Don L. Hofsommer that tells the story of the state’s railroads and their vital role in American history. Missouri is strategically located in America’s Heartland, and by the 1920s, the state was crisscrossed with railways reaching toward all points of the compass. Schwantes will explore the history of Missouri railroads through personal, absorbing tales of the cutthroat competition between cities and between railroads that meant the difference between prosperity and obscurity, the ambitions and dreams of visionaries Fred Harvey and Arthur Stilwell and the country’s excitement for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.