“What—No Adventure?” Second Carbon May 13. [Cover title, Volume One]. [with] “What No Adventure?” Carbon Original May 13. Volume Two [cover title].

Boston: 175 Blackstone St., 1940. 2 vols., 4to (11.5” x 9”), stiff brown paper covers with brown cloth edging along spine, internal metal fasteners, paper title labels affixed to front covers. Vol. I: [xviii], 290 pp. of typescript; Vol. II: 149-290 pp. of typescript, 67 original photos (bromide prints, silver prints, cyanotypes, approx. 3.25” x 4” to 7.25” x 10”) mounted or bound in and captioned in type, with early manuscript captions on versos, which are sometimes more extensive; maps and clipped illustrations from a variety of sources pasted in, 4 mounted railroad passes.

An impressive unpublished memoir by a railroad construction engineer working in the midwest and northwest, illustrated with nearly seventy original photos centering on the railroad building scene in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest at the turn-of-the-century.

Walker evidently composed this colorful memoir at the urging of his family and friends who requested he put to paper “what they call my ‘adventures’ locating, constructing, and maintaining railroads in the Northwest 30 to 50 years ago.” An extensive and richly detailed account, it appears to be based on his diaries, which are sometimes quoted, and is doubtless drawn from memory as well. Documenting his childhood (1874–1890) as well as eighteen of his years working as an engineer (1890–1908), the narrative blends the professional and the personal, and contains much interesting matter relating to the locales in which he was working and the many characters he encountered. Of primary interest is Walker’s account of his time in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, as well as related photos, which he removed from albums (assembled earlier) to illustrate this work. While volume one contains the text of his entire memoir, volume two consists of the last seven chapters only (eleven to seventeen) supplemented with photographs, maps, printed illustrations drawn from other sources, etc.

Walker’s memoir opens with an account of his “boyhood days in North Dakota,” during which his father worked as a railroad telegrapher. He recounts the lynching of a black man; Sioux Indians dances; camping trips, and so forth. His account of the ensuing eighteen years covers his education at the University of Minnesota and MIT, and his varied working life, the chronology of which is outlined in the table of contents as follows: begins engineering career on Santa Fe R.R. in Illinois (1890); constructs Soo Line in Dakota (1892); takes a job with a land company in Gladstone, Michigan; becomes engineer on construction of Blast Furnace Gladstone (1894); meets railroad executive Daniel Willard (1895); “locates small railroad with Oneida Indian for rodman”; serves as engineer “for a road at Ashland, Wisconsin”; serves again as engineer for “Blast Furnace Co. building railroad”; becomes “resident engineer on Great Northern R’y on railroad construction Leech Lake, Minn.”; “transferred to Washington to help locate railroad in Columbia River Canyon”; serves as engineer for Minneapolis and St. Louis R.R. on construction of railroad in Iowa (1899); studies Mining and Metallurgy at Mass. Institute of Technology (1899–1890); serves as engineer of Great Northern-Minnesota and Iowa (1900–1901); makes a trip to Montana and Seattle, Washington; undertakes the location of a railroad from Yakutat along the shore of the Gulf of Alaska; returns to the engineering dept. of Great Northern Railway (1901); transferred to Everett, Washington (1902); transfers to Seattle to construct a tunnel under the city; becomes Resident Engineer at Superior, Wisconsin; and transfers to General Headquarters in St. Paul (1908).

In addition to his account of the many matters, people, etc. immediately related to railroad construction Walker treats a wide range of subjects, often at considerable length, including the “characters at Leech Lake—events leading up to trouble between Indians and soldiers—an account of the battle with Indians—incidents which occurred after the fight”; western artist Charles Russell on the scene in Montana; gamblers; a Chinese laundryman and artist; Johnson, “the squawman and illegal sealer”; the problem of “getting rid of whiskey joints,” and a host of other interesting subjects.

Most of the photos included here were taken in Alaska and Washington State in the early 1900s. In one image Walker is shown standing in front of a “Great Northern Engineering Dept.” boxcar. The caption reads “The Author in clothes suitable for work near a steam shovel 1901.” An early inscription on the verso reads: “Your humble servant. Frank B. Walker, Asst. Engr. G.N.R. 1901 Cascade Mountains. Blue flannel shirt brown duck overhauls and soft black felt hat.” Another shot shows Walker’s “office and home for a large part of 1901”—a separate building “which could be slid off the flat car on to temporary supports.” Other subjects represented include bridges, mines, trains, camps, icebergs, steamers, bays, the city of Seattle; a Tlingit mother with her child; “Foreman Mike (kneeling) preparing to dynamite large boulder”; railway construction scenes with laborers; two children sitting on a railcar in front of a wooden trestle; train wrecks; views of the Cascade Mountain Range; scenes of the Great Northern in the Cascades, and more.

We find no records of publications, diaries, etc. by Walker in OCLC or anywhere else.

A fascinating unrecorded memoir chronicling the career of a northwestern railroadman, illustrated with original photographs.

CONDITION: Good, spine edges rubbed, front cover of volume one partly detached, contents very good.