Thomas F. (hardtack) - , reviewed on 6/2/2023 + 2569 more book reviews

Yes, the book is about taking the railroad to Key West, but it is also about the man who some say "invented Florida." Flagler's development of railroad lines to Florida towns from the northeastern area of the state and continuing down the East Coast to Miami "made" Florida, as the state became an easy trip from other states further north. In fact, some of the very small towns the railroad reached later became huge cites, such as Miami. Consider that when he started extending the railroad through the state, Key West was Florida's largest city.

As I've lived in the state most of my life, and have visited some of the hotels he built, one of which is now a prestigious college, this book provided me a fascinating history about Florida and the problems Flagler encountered building the railroad.

The only problem I found was on page 79, when the author relates how yellow fever broke out in 1899 in Miami when tick-infested cattle from Cuba were brought onshore. As I was an entomologist at the University of Florida for over 33 years and used to write and lecture on how insects and arachnids influenced history, mostly due to their vectoring diseases, I found the statement about ticks vectoring yellow fever a great surprise. Admitting I may have over looked this, I did a search and did find some references to tick vectored yellow fever, but not on any reliable site. No university site contained this information and neither did the CDC site. I suspect the author found some old reference to such somewhere and just included it in the book without checking further.

It's such a good read I'm tempted to keep it. But it is wish-listed and I'll post it for other members.

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