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John Frank Stevens: American Trailblazer by Odin Baugh

2007; Oregon Historical Society; Volume: 108; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ohq.2007.0106

2329-3780

Craig Holstine,

Archaeology and Natural History

River intoBritishColumbia, floodingCanadian farmland.LibbyDam darkly foreshadowed the opposition thatplagued the corps throughout the era of increased public environmentalism. Revived in 1966and completed for$383million in 1975, LibbyDam became theSeattledistrict's most expensive project todate. Willingham's valuable book shows rare sym pathy for thenation's most embattled builder. Where othersdismiss thecorps as a brutish tool of big government, Willingham sees problem solvers. Regrettably, the paperback is badly designed withmuddy, inadequately captioned photos. Oddly, theonly color graphic isa photo of thedistrict commander in a foreword that misses the point about the politics thathave always vexed water construction in thePacific Northwest. Todd Shallat Centerfor IdahoHistory and Politics, Boise State University JOHN FRANK STEVENS: AMERICAN TRAILBLAZER by Odin Baugh Arthur H. Clark, Spokane, Wash., 2005. Illustrations, photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 251 pages. $32.50 cloth. JohnFrank Stevens, the subject of this modest biography, stands inthepantheon ofgreatengi neers of the latenineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Born in1853in West Gardiner,Maine, he followed his engineer uncle to Minneapolis at age twenty-one. Despite lacking technical training, Stevens became a surveyor inMin nesota. The rugged,outdoor lifestyle of railroad surveying drew him to Texas, New Mexico, Iowa,Michigan, Canada, and elsewhere. Work on theCanadian Pacific's transcontinental line throughtheRockyMountains honed theyoung engineer's considerable talents in locating and constructing railroads, which attracted the attention of tycoonswho eagerly hired him. James J. Hill referredto Stevens as "themost capable engineer in railroad construction that Ihave everknown" (p. 73). Scouting forHill's Great Northern route, Stevens locatedMarias Pass inMontana and the pass through the Washington Cascades that would laterbear his name. Hill personally recommended him for the job of chiefengineer on thePanama Canal, whose route and design are credited toStevens. During World War I,he headed anAmerican commission of expertschargedwith improving the rail system inRussia. Foreign governments and universities showered Stevenswith acco lades forhis extraordinary record of engineer ing excellence, and theAmerican Society of Civil Engineers elected him president of the organization in 1927.He died at age ninety in Southern Pines, North Carolina, in 1943. Of interestto PacificNorthwest historians are chapters Three and Five of this study, which deal with Stevens's role in railroading for JamesJ. Hill in Montana, Washington, and Oregon. Within a year,he had identifiedboth Marias and Stevens passes as routes for the Great Northern, the railroad he would serve for seventeen years as head surveyor, chief en gineer,and eventuallygeneralmanager. Acting as Hill's stalking horse, Stevens clandestinely bought right-of-wayon theDeschutes River in centralOregon and thendirected construc tion of theOregon Trunk Line between Celilo and Bend. Hill made Stevens president of the Spokane, Portland, and Seattle rail lines,aswell as two subsidiary lines.Baugh's recounting of Stevens's close relationship with Hill is espe cially compelling, revealing his subject's deft abilities inhandling powerful superiors aswell as armies of admiring subordinates. Baugh does an admirable job of tracking Stevens around theworld, although chasing might better characterize the pursuit. Baugh captures thehuman dynamo athis best, endur ingbone-chilling blizzards onMarias Pass and swelteringCongressional hearings on Capitol Hill. Less flatteringisStevens, representing the U.S. government (a role with which he was never comfortable), establishing wage scales Reviews 153 of twenty cents an hour for unskilled white workers and ten cents an hour for black labor ers in theCanal Zone. In that instance and in his active disdain fororganized labor,Stevens appears less than heroic, although not out of character for a white corporate executive of his time. Many engineers, members of Congress, and perhaps Theodore Roosevelt favoredbuilding a sea-level, ditch-type canal in Panama. That solution would likelyhave proven unfeasible. In Congressional hearings and at least one private meeting with the president, Stevens forcefullypromoted the series of locks and dams that eventually constituted thePanama Canal. His efforts alone may have prevented theUnited States from embarking on a disas trous course thatwould surelyhave tarnished Roosevelt's legacy.Baugh carefully traces the growing exhaustion and disenchantment with government bureaucracy that led Stevens to tender his resignation, thus embittering the president whose trust and support he had enjoyed. Whether Stevens or his successor as chief engineer,George W. Goethals, should be creditedwith theCanal's ultimate triumph is debatable. Baugh may be excused...