Last Train to Paradise

Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean

The fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad—one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores.

In Last Train to Paradise, Standiford celebrates this crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition, bringing to life a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature’s wrath.

In 1904, the brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler, partner to John D. Rockefeller, dreamed of a railway connecting the island of Key West to the Florida mainland, crossing a staggering 153 miles of open ocean—an engineering challenge beyond even that of the Panama Canal. Many considered the project impossible, but build it they did. The railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for more than twenty-two years, heralded as “the Eighth Wonder of the World,” until its total destruction in 1935’s deadly storm of the century.

Henry Morrison Flagler, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil partner and, in the eyes of many, the true genius behind that company, embarked on the project in 1905 when he was 74 years old.

The railroad, which crossed more than 150 miles of open sea, was an engineering feat nearly equal in scale and difficulty to the digging of the Panama Canal. Standiford’s narrative skillfully blends tales of construction perils (not the least of which were escadrilles of mosquitoes) with brief, illuminating travelogues and natural histories with pocket descriptions of life in early 20th-century Florida.  Eye witness accounts describe the storm’s terror and a truly gripping description of an epic battle against the monstrous 1935 Labor Day hurricane that lead to yet another devastating setback to the already bankrupt Florida East Coast Railroad. Being unable to escape the storms rage, the stalled rescue train’s surviving engineer and crew survive a 20 foot storm surge in the cab of the FEC 160-ton 4-8-2 steam locomotive, #447.  With nary a single missed note, this fascinating tale is popular history at its best.

Historian and author Les Standiford appears in this 100th Anniversary video of the building of the Overseas Railroad

To see “Flagler’s Train”, a one hour documentary, produced by WPBT2, which chronicles the imagination and achievements of Henry Morrison Flagler, who spearheaded the development of the over-seas railway connecting Key West to the existing Florida East Coast Railway- Click here:  Flagler’s Train – The Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad as seen on PBS. See more from WPBT2 Presents.

By john purcell: Les Standiford has put together a spell-binding tale of the last of the privately financed infrastructure projects undertaken by the larger than life 19th century businessmen. Here Henry Flagler races against his own mortality to complete a railroad from Jacksonville to Key West, with the final run south from Miami requiring herculean engineering, management, and financial resources. Flagler was a partner of John D. Rockefeller in an earlier venture known as Standard Oil who decided in his 70’s to pursue a second career in railroading, land development, and luxury hotels in the then desolate country of South Florida and the Keys.

Standiford weaves together Flagler, Rockefeller, their arch-rival trust-busting Teddy Roosevelt, WWI bonus armies, and big-game hunting author Ernest Hemingway. While Rockefeller also owned vacation homes in Florida, he and Flagler ultimately had a parting of the ways, with Rockefeller pointedly not attending Flagler’s funeral. Flagler had been an early supporter of Roosevelt in his successful bid for the New York governorship after Roosevelt’s success in the brief Spanish American war. Later Roosevelt brought antitrust action against Standard Oil and at least in Flagler’s mind was behind government resistance to his plan to build a deep water harbor in Miami. Ironically, the US victory in the Spanish American War, together with confirmed plans to build the Panama Canal, were the motivation for Flagler’s railroad adventures, as Flagler projected, incorrectly as it turned out, that Miami and Key West would grow in stature as ports.

Related articles:

• Flagler Museum – A visit into the life of Henry Flagler (turosdolci.wordpress.com)
• Visit the Henry Flagler Museum – West Palm Beach