The Joy of History

Having majored in History in college I developed a great respect for its study. Researching lives, events, progressions,digressions and the like, is quite the endeavor. Trying to step into a place and time, which could be 300 years ago to 1 year ago, and look around from the inside is an astonishing thought in itself. Though I am not teaching, reading history has floored me evermore in recent years (I would suppose partially due to the leisure of it). Most recently I have been reading "Nothing Like It In The World", the story of the men who built the Transcontinental Railroad from 1863-1869. The progression of the story is phenomenal... from the details of the planning, the painstaking initial application, to the accomplishments along the way...all the while painting pictures of the passions, talents, and journeys of men who lived in essentially another world than us. The fascination that studying history can give a trip back to Iowa through, what used to be my arch nemesis, Nebraska, is gratifying. The Omaha (or Lincoln) to Julesburg route along the Platte River Valley has been traveled first by Buffalo and Natives, then Lewis and Clark, then Fur Traders, then been a section of the Oregon Trail, then used by the Mormon's with their handcarts, then Gold Seekers, then it became the route for the Transcontinental Railroad....no longer is it the dreaded boring wasteland I once knew. This movement west is in a sense how I was able to come to Denver....from Iowa....to ancestors from the Eastern US....to ancestors from places in the Netherlands I can only dream about. What a thought....and its even more amazing because its reality.