We often get asked about our band name. It happens often enough that we devoted an entire page of our website to the question: https://thehigh48s.com/about/whats-a-high-48/.
But the short answer is that we’re named after a boxcar called a 48, or a 40/8, which was named for its carrying capacity: 40 men or 8 horses. These cars were used during World War I to transport troops and materiel to the front lines. After the war, as a gesture of gratitude and good will, France made a gift of these boxcars to the US, one for each state.
Our friend Jim Johnson, who promotes the outstanding Bluegrass Tuesdays concert series down in Indianola, IA (which I’m happy to announce, we’ll be playing again in 2012!), just sent some great pictures of a 48 car from a recent trip down to Daytona Beach, FL. We’ll be posting some of these on our “What’s a High 48?” page soon, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share a few of them with you here on our blog page:
Thanks, Jim!
