Check out this op-ed in the San Angelo Standard-Times. Columnist Bruce McLaren, inspired after reading Appetite for America, uses Fred as a way into a discussion of how mass transit and the culture it brings can change the destiny of areas—like West Texas. Here’s the lede:

SAN ANGELO, Texas — I have just finished reading a most interesting biography about Fred Harvey, entitled “Appetite for America.” A visionary businessman, he built a railroad hospitality empire that civilized the Wild West. He was a pioneer in transit-oriented development.

There were Harvey houses at railroad depots in many of the cities of the western United States, some as close to us as Sweetwater, Slaton and Brownwood. This book is well worth your time to read.

That is part of what prompted me to write this. The other is: Do you ever dream while sleeping? When you wake up can you still recall the dream in some detail?

Not long ago, I woke from what I thought was a sound night’s sleep, yet vividly recalling the following scenario: I needed to get to Dallas, but our airport was closed. Flights could not land or leave. I drove over to the new transportation center at Chadbourne and Houston Harte hoping to catch a bus to Dallas.

Arriving, I noticed a brightly painted commuter train from Presidio that was preparing to depart for Brownwood, Stephenville, Granbury and Fort Worth, and arrive in Dallas in three and a half hours. Purchasing a ticket, I boarded a comfortably appointed passenger car.

Unfortunately, as my “dream train” pulled out of San Angelo, my alarm clock went off and I never got to enjoy the trip.

Many of us dream of trains, Bruce…

photo courtesy of Gordon Chappell collection, Denver Public Library

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