The Last American Highway: A Journey Through Time Down U.S Route 83: Nebraska Kansas Oklahoma - Paperback

by Stew Magnuson (Author)

Descending 1,885 miles straight down the center of the United States from Westhope, North Dakota, to Brownsville, Texas, is U.S. 83, one of the oldest and longest of the federal highways that hasn't been replaced by an Interstate. Award-winning author Stew Magnuson takes readers on a trip through the Nebraska Sand Hills, the Smoky River Valley in Kansas and the singular Oklahoma Panhandle. Along the route are the stories of the famous, the infamous, and the forgotten. Buffalo Bill Cody hunted these lands, but what about Buffalo Jones, who set out to save the American bison from extinction? This is where the ruthless, but now largely forgotten bank robbers, the Fleagles committed their most heinous crime; where the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia met George Armstrong Custer and Pussy Cat Nell dispatched the corrupt Sheriff "Brushy" Bush with a shotgun blast. What ties together President Eisenhower, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and author Truman Capote? Highway 83, of course.

Author Biography

Nebraska native Stew Magnuson is the author of The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns (Texas Tech University Press), 2009 Nebraska nonfiction book of the year, Wounded Knee 1973: Still Bleeding (Now & Then Reader) The Last American Highway: A Journey Through Time Down U.S. Route 83: The Dakotas, and the novel, The Song of Sarin. He has traveled to 48 countries, all 50 states, and has worked as a foreign correspondent in Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and Japan. He is currently managing editor of National Defense Magazine in Arlington, Virginia.