Life Imitating Art Imitating Life - The Wabash Cannonball

We did some biking on the North Fork of the Wabash Cannonball rails-to-trails trail in Ohio. The trail is named for the Wabash Cannon Ball Express train that ran between Detroit and St. Louis starting in 1949. There is also a song about a train called "The Wabash Cannonball".

Now you would think the song was written about the train, but you would only be partially right.

There was a Cannon Ball express train which ran for a number of years from Chicago to El Paso in the late 1800s. Then a song about a fictional Wabash Cannonball train came out in 1932 (based on the Cannon Ball), and was covered by numerous artists. The song became so popular, that the Wabash Railroad Company named its Detroit and St. Louis express train the Cannonball, after the song. (The train ran under that name from 1949 until 1971.) The land was bought for the rails to trails in 1994.

Two interesting facts about the song:

• The group The Carter Family (the first of the famous country/bluegrass Carters) were the ones who released the song in 1932.
• "The Wabash Cannonball" is the first song of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll"  

“From the great Atlantic ocean to the wide Pacific shore
She climbs a flowery mountains o'er the hills and by the shore
She's mighty tall and handsome she's known quite well by all
She's a regular combination on the Wabash Cannonball”

Listen to  "The Wabash Cannonball"