About the Episode
The Transcontinental Railroad was officially begun in 1863, at the order of President Abraham Lincoln but it was not finished until 1869, spanning a distance of 1776 miles from Omaha to Sacramento. In the end, thousands worked hard to make it real and it ended with a single spike. That’s kind of a funny story.
Also featured is the story of Joseph Kekuku, a boy in Hawaii who invented a new style of music thanks to a chance encounter with a random railroad spike (or bolt, or comb, depending on the story). Steel guitar can now be heard all over the world (and radio). It might not have happened without Portuguese cowboys, Mormon missionaries, and America’s annexing his free and independent homeland.
If you’d like to learn more about Kekuku and the role of Hawaii in music through the steel guitar, I recommend the book Kika Kila, by John Troutman. It was very important to creating this episode.
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