Great American Railroad Journeys

Michael Portillo's nineteenth-century Appleton's guidebook leads him to the Parker House Hotel, where in his best pinny, he whisks up a Boston cream pie. In the fine dome atop Massachusetts General Hospital, where no-one could hear the screaming, Michael discovers the scene of grisly surgery, first made bearable, in 1846, by a miraculous new substance. North of Boston, in Salem, Michael is caught up in a witch hunt.

Armed with his trusty Appleton's Guide, Michael Portillo reaches San Francisco, where he boards one of the city's iconic cable cars. Behind the scenes in the engineering powerhouse, he uncovers the street cars' secret to scaling the city's famously steep hills. In the Presidio neighbourhood, a leading publisher introduces Michael to San Francisco's long tradition of fine printing and book-making. Michael takes the opportunity to have his own treasured book appraised.

Beginning in the Silver State of Nevada, Michael takes to the skies over the dramatic Sierra Nevada mountain range. At Lake Tahoe, he hears of the first European explorer, known as `The Pathfinder', whose discovery opened up the west for settlement. Travelling on the historic Virginia and Truckee heritage line, Michael investigates the vast deposits of silver and gold ore on which Virginia City was built.

Michael Portillo heads for the Last Frontier of the United States armed with his 1899 `Appleton's Guide-Book to Alaska'. Beginning his journey amid the snow-capped mountains and ice-cold inlets of the Kenai Peninsula, Michael finds the golden onion domes of a Russian Orthodox church along with traditional Russian food and costume and discovers that, 150 years ago, Alaska was a Russian colony.

Armed with his 1899 Appleton's Guidebook to Alaska, Michael Portillo rides the Alaska Railroad north to explore the remote former gold rush settlement of Talkeetna. Deep in the forest outside town, Michael gets a taste of the pioneering spirit of early 20th century prospectors and settlers from a modern day `homesteader' and helps fell a tree to clear land for a log cabin.