Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean

Les Standiford's Last Train to Paradise opens aboard the rescue train that was sent to save the World War I veterans who comprised the bulk of the WPA workers laboring in Keys at the height of the Great Depression - in the midst of the most powerful hurricane to ever strike the U.S.

After setting the scene with the rescue train, Standiford moves backward in time, from the last train to traverse the keys, to Henry Flagler's singular determination to lay tracks across the ocean (up to seven miles at a stretch) and ride the first train across the Keys. In many ways, Last Train is as much a biography of Flagler as it is a history of the railroad from Miami to Key West.

Flagler is a fascinating guy: a millionaire many times over from his Standard Oil partnership with Rockefelle, he essentially got bored of the Gilded Age life and essentially created Florida as a destination for the moneyed classes. I learned of him for the first time when I visited St. Augustine a few years ago, but even then wasn't aware of the extent of his role in Florida-as-playground. Gradually, he laid tracks and built resorts from the state's north to its southernmost point, and then across the ocean to Key West. The latter was quite an undertaking, as one would imagine, and is Standiford's focus, from the labor force (Spanish and Cayman Islanders were most preferred), to the engineering tactics that allowed the supports to be sunk into deep waters and shifting sands (German concrete was the secret), to the troubles that beset construction (mostly hurricanes). Indeed, many experts have described Flagler's railroad as an engineering feat on par with the Panama Canal.

Standiford then circles back to the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 with which he began, which would ultimately wipe out most of the middle keys, and Flagler's dream of a railroad along with it.

Although I had no idea Last Train included an account of the storm (in hindsight, this is obvious, I know), I was especially interested in Standiford's recounting of the hurricane, as just a few months ago I read Under a Dark Summer Sky, which is a fictional account of the same storm. For those interested in hurricane reading, the fictional account or Isaac's Storm (Galveston hurricane of 1900), make for a more satisfying read. For a comprehensive history of how a man shaped a state's destiny, it would be hard to beat Last Train.