The U. P. Trail by Zane Grey is a story set in the American West as a military party of soldiers and engineers who are tasked to do the original survey work for the Union Pacific railroad. The story opens as the surveying team comes up against the Laramie Mountains, a place of high peaks and deep gorges. This terrain slows the party down as they seek to find the best way to get through. Of course this is just a prelude to what lies ahead, the Rocky Mountains.

The Sioux Indians have taken to the warpath, and have attacked a near-by wagon train, but the soldiers were too late to save the party but one young woman survived and is rescued. Allie is taken in by an old mountain man and with his care and teaching she changes from the somber, pale victim into an independent, strong young woman. A romance develops between this traumatized young woman, Allie, and one of the young engineers, Warren Neal. The story winds through many adventures, some dealing with the railroad and others with Allie being kidnapped by desperadoes and eventually falling into the hands of the Indians. As Warren, his gunslinger friend, Red, and the mountain man, Slingerland search for answers as to what happened to Allie, the story becomes a series of close encounters and rather contrived coincidences.

Zane Grey writes with a lot of emotion which can make his stories seem very melodramatic but where his writing shines is in his descriptions of the American West. I was pleased with how Grey developed his female character from a helpless victim into a person who dealt with her own situation and didn’t need to be rescued by the men. Overall, I did enjoy The U. P. Trail as he delivered a lively adventure story along with a little history about the building of the railway that was to eventually span the continent. ( )

Grey is always better when he writes historical fiction based on real events. This is one of his best stories because of his emphasis on the various nationalities of men who completed this dream. The story ends at Promitory Peak with the driving of the silver spike. ( )