I am posting this event here because of its connection to Great Northern history, and because there are likely to be other GN/NP/SP&S fans near Portland, Oregon, on this board. It's also just a really neat book. Author Leon Speroff will be speaking and answering questions about his book, The Deschutes River Railroad War, at 7:30 PM on THURSDAY, MAY 3, at St. Johns Booksellers, located at 8622 N Lombard Street, Portland, Oregon. This should be of particular interest not just to railfans, but to Union Pacific, Great Northern, Spokane Portland & Seattle, and to fans of Pacific Northwest railroading. The store phone number is 503-283-0032. The event organizer there is Nena. The following is a brief description of the book provided by the publisher's website: "I found myself seventy pages into the book before putting it down for a dinner call... This book is not just for Great Northern, Spokane, Portland & Seattle and Union Pacific Railway fans, but for all rail fans and historians." - Duane Buck, President, Great Northern Railway Historical Society Tracing the geological and railroad history of the Pacific Northwest, Leon Speroff evokes the Age of the Railroad in his newest book, The Deschutes River Railroad War. With intricate detail, expert understanding and amusing anecdotes, he brings to life this fascinating true tale of the race to expand railroad service from the Columbia River up the Deschutes River to Bend, Oregon. When the two railroad barons, James J. Hill of the Great Northern and Edward H. Harriman of the Union Pacific, both set their sights on the Deschutes River Canyon for building a railway to Bend, neither man could have foreseen the massive expenditure of money, time, energy and human lives that characterized their mad rush to the finish. At the heart of this gripping story is the essence of the American West and the magnates, workers, immigrants and settlers whose impact on the region would usher the age of railroad transportation into the twentieth century.
