About this item
Progress on the nation’s second transcontinental railroad slowed in 1873. The Northern Pacific’s proposed middle—the 250 miles between present Billings and Glendive, Montana—had yet to be surveyed, and Sioux and Cheyenne Indians opposed construction through the Yellowstone Valley, the heart of their hunting grounds. A previous surveying expedition along the Yellowstone River in 1872 had resulted in the death of a prominent member of the party, the near-death of the railroad’s chief engineer, the embarrassment of the U.S. Army, and a public relations and financial disaster for the Northern Pacific.Such is the backdrop for Custer and the 1873 Yellowstone Survey, the story of the expedition told through documents selected and interpreted by historian M.
About the Author
After 32 years as a cable television executive and successfully co-founding two communications companies and a cable network (the Learning Channel) , John Lubetkin knows first-hand the pains and risks involved in forming new businesses in the face of determined competition. In retirement, John first channeled his creative interests into the little known story of Jay Cooke ("The Financier of the Civil War") and the speculative, ethically-challenged creation of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The result was John's multiple award-winning, multi-disciplinary, Jay Cooke's Gamble: The Northern Pacific Railroad, The Sioux, and the Panic of 1873 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2006) .
A follow-up book on a related topic, Surveyor, Sioux, and Soldier: Custer and the 1873 Yellow-stone Surveying Expedition is scheduled for 2012 publication. John, a former director of the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association, has recently completed a parallel work of historical fiction entitled Donovan's Gold, a story of stolen Montana gold set against a Yellow-stone Valley backdrop of Indian fighting, railroad construction, illicit sex, and an astonishing villain.
A graduate of Union College in Schenectady, NY, John has also published Union College's Class of 1868: The Unique Experiences of Some "Average" Americans (1995) , and has contributed numerous articles and book reviews for various historical publications and The Classic Western American Railroad Routes.
Recently John completed his first mystery-thriller, The Carlyle Betrayal, the story of a commu-nications conglomerate's chief trouble shooter attempting to track down the source of a risqué photograph of a Presidential candidate's wife, the woman being the daughter of the media company's owner. A follow-up, The Waldorf Seduction, is underway. John and his wife, Linda are empty-nesters living in McLean, VA.
