The map of the plains was drawn in large part by the railroads. As the lines pushed west, the companies platted townsites at regular intervals — roughly a grain wagon's round trip apart — and named them, often alphabetically or after company men, with a briskness that shaped the settlement of a whole region. To be on the line was to live; to be bypassed was to wither.

Towns Laid Out by the Timetable

A railroad town followed a familiar pattern: the depot and the grain elevators by the tracks, the main street of stores facing the line, the churches and houses spreading back from there. The railroad brought the settlers in, carried the wheat out, and delivered the lumber, coal and manufactured goods that made prairie life possible.

From the almanac's reckoning:

• Railroads platted townsites at regular intervals as they pushed west.
• Being on the line meant survival; being bypassed meant decline.
• Depot and grain elevators anchored every railroad town.

When the branch lines were later pulled up, many of the towns they had created faded with them, and some vanished altogether. The almanac reckons the railroad the true founder of the plains town — the force that decided, town by town, who would prosper and who would disappear.