Archive for March 2009
Local History
I’ve been asked for my thoughts about compiling the book with local history as its subject. Like any other project, you will have to decide what story you want to tell. No publisher will touch an “all-time”, definitive history. So the challenge is the compromise that the author is willing to live with.
This is precisely why I do web pages. I’m in complete control, with no publisher breathing down my neck about page count and always trying to reduce costs. Plus there is no fear of a lack of promotion. Any good internet search engine will find a web site.
In my case I will always consider the Ogden Rails project incomplete. But there comes a time when you have to move on. I’d love to do a “Salt Lake City Rails” book, or a full history of Brigham Young and the railroads. But in reality, I doubt that such projects will ever see publication, other than in the form of loosely associated web pages.
About doing a local history book: maybe a simple update of a previously published project might be good enough, such as my personal favorite, Ira Swett’s “Interurbans of Utah”, but with more and bigger photos, and good maps. Doing day-to-day newspaper research almost always adds new information, but can be incredibly boring and time consuming. At some point you will have to ask yourself, “will it really add to the story I want to tell?”
As words of encouragement, continue gathering data, photos, and maps. At some point, you will have to decide what exactly you want to say. Hopefully that decision will come sooner rather than later, and you won’t pass from this world and leave your family with the decision as to what to do with all of your research.
