Coal-Powered Crime: A Study on the Confluence of the Train Industry and Banditry in Nineteenth Century America

This work, at its core, is an exploration into the dual role of the railroad and the people that used, abused and owned these metal tracks. I suggest that while the railroads served as a springboard for outlaw activity, the advancements made for the benefit of the railroad or as a byproduct because of its development allowed the railroad to become the most important tool utilized by the civil forces that led an almost fifty year crusade towards the total dissolution of rampant outlaw activity along the western frontier of America by the end of the nineteenth century. In examining the continuity between crime and law enforcement within the railroad-centric economy of the American West, this thesis will also explore the socio-economic context that allowed outlaws to thrive amidst the advancing modernity of the railroads, while simultaneously pinpointing the evolution of law enforcement responses that evolved in tandem with the rail infrastructure.