Battery Dantzler

A half-mile northeast stands Battery Dantzler, named for Col. Olin Miller Dantzler, 22d South Carolina Infantry (killed in action nearby on 2 June 1864), and constructed in May-June 1864 to block the Union navy's approach to Richmond. The battery anchored ...

The Route of the Hiawatha- Smooth as Silk

“Highballing” fast freight trains..

…known as “Silks”, sped raw Asian silk from west coast seaports across the United States for processing into finished garments.

The silks had the right-of-way over freight and passenger trains alike. They rushed their multimillion dollar cargo across ...

UNICO National

1922 1972

Commemorating The 50th Anniversary

Of The Founding Of

UNICO National

Hotel Elton, Waterbury, Connecticut

October 10, 1922

"Service Above Self"

Marker is at the intersection of West Main Street and Prospect Street, on the right when traveling west on West Main Street.

Courtesy hmdb.org

Abatis Construction at Fort Lee

Fortifications were protected by obstacles, such as an abatis, or other major hindrances to assaulting troops. They were easily placed before a parapet, or breastwork, wherever trees were plentiful and were used to supplement defensive rampart walls or barricades.

Derived from ...

The Route of the Hiawatha- World Class Workers

Who’s Been Working On The Railroad?

If you stood here sometime between 1907 and 1911, you would have heard a multitude of languages.

The hundreds of people employed during the construction of the Milwaukee Road included; Italians, Bulgarians, Japanese, Serbs, Croatians, Montenegrins, ...

Confederate Winter Camps

Fighting Boredom and Disease

After the Confederate victory at Ball’s Bluff in October 1861, the Union and Confederate armies settled into winter camps between Washington and Richmond. Confederate forces withdrew from Fairfax County to Prince William County and defended a line ...

The Route of the Hiawatha- The Toughest Town

People used to say “Taft, Montana was the toughest town in the west until Grand Forks, Idaho developed.”

Located across the valley at the mouth of Cliff Creek, a Forest Service employee described it as,

“…a wild mushroom construction town. The main ...

The Route of the Hiawatha- "In the Hole"

When two trains met on the single track Milwaukee mainline one train would have to “go in the hole”. One train moved onto a side track or siding, letting the other train pass by.

Timing a “meet” was extremely important. An ...

The Route of the Hiawatha- Secluded Falcon

You are standing on what was Falcon, Idaho, a lonely but important Milwaukee Road siding named for the raptors that nested in the area. Train passengers gave the place scant notice, but by 1915, a depot, a section house and ...

The Route of the Hiawatha- Little in Name Only

[Cyrillic text]

(Little Joes, The Locomotives Big Joe Stalin Never Got!)

Made for Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, the United States embargoed these magnificent locomotives as strategic material at the start of the “Cold War”.

The Milwaukee Road bought twelve of these 586,00 pound ...