The Wild West was more than just cowboys. It was also the raucous and unfettered railroad settlements that lined the tracks. Overnight settlements, better known as "Hell on wheels," sprang up as the transcontinental railroad crossed Nebraska and Wyoming. They brought opportunity not only for legitimate businesses but also for gamblers, land speculators, prostitutes, and thugs. Kreck tells their stories, along with those of the heroic individuals who managed, finally, to create permanent towns in the interior West.