About this item
Hoping to complete its transcontinental route, the Northern Pacific Railroad set out in 1872 to survey the Yellowstone Valley. An emissary from the Lakota chief Sitting Bull had warned the two surveying expeditions (eastern and western) not to enter the valley. But no one—certainly no Northern Pacific investor—was worried about taking the Indian threat seriously. As it turned out, the Indians were deadly serious—and successful. The firsthand accounts compiled here by M. John Lubetkin document the survey’s three-month struggle with the Lakotas and other Plains Indian people. Before Custer: Surveying the Yellowstone, 1872 tells the story of a military and public relations disaster. Much to the surprised dismay of U.S. Army strategists and railroad executives, the Indians repeatedly harrassed army forces of nearly a thousand men.
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.
