This book is included in the Outdoor Survival - Bio-Regional Environments section.
Preface
This volume contains the result of personal observations made in Kansas and Colorado in the Summer of 1871. By a resolution adopted by the Missouri State Board of Agriculture, it was
determined in a body and in their official capacity, to take an excursion through Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and if found practicable, to Utah. The object was to gain information by
personal observation, of the natural resources and agricultural capabilities of the great Plains and of the mountain territories, to ascertain the
state of the branches of industry to which they were adapted, the character of the soil and climate, the mode of culture, and the probable extent to which they
would be dependent upon other sections for supplies especially
agricultural products. An invitation was extended to the Kansas State Agricultural Society, to join us in the excursion,
which was cordially accepted. To the liberality of the North Missouri, the Kansas Pacific, the Colorado Central,
the Denver Pacific and the Boulder Valley railroads we are indebted for free passes in going and returning over their roads; and for which they will please accept the most grateful and cordial thanks of the whole party.
During the excursion, I took full notes of everything that fell under my observation, and also of facts elicited
from conversations with those familiar with the Mountains; not with the remotest intention however, of perpetrating the infliction of a book upon the patient public, but for my own gratification and satisfaction.
After my return home, I wrote out a few pages of the notes for the Sunday number of one of our leading dailies. These were
so favorably received, and excited so much interest, as to draw upon me scores of letters from all parts of the country where these sketches found their way. Some of these were from persons familiar with the scenes described, thanking me for the gratification the reading of my notes afforded them in reviving the recollections of the sublime and grand scenery of these matchless Mountains, and of enabling them mentally to renew the
wild enjoyments, excitements and pleasures of a rude mining life. Other letters were from parties having various objects in view
of some from those desirous of seeking new homes; some from those seeking investments, or solicitous of engaging in new
enterprises, and others from invalids borne down by disease, anxious to know if a cure, or an amelioration of their infirmities would not be effected by a sojourn in the delightful and salubrious climate of the Mountains. All these wanted full and definite information on the points in
which they felt interested.
The number of these letters, and the intense anxiety the writers expressed for accurate information, first suggested
the idea of writing out the notes in full and publishing them in book form.
I have endeavored to meet the expectations and gratify the desires of all
these questioners, as far as my observations extended. Moreover, I have
endeavored to supply a want much needed by pleasure seekers, by making known the variety, extent, grandeur and sublimity of the matchless scenery of these gigantic Mountains. There is a large and increasing class who have the means and leisure to spend the hot summer months in fleeing to cooler localities for
relaxation, recreation and recuperation. Many, but the}- arc not the lovers and admirers of Nature, go to the seashore, or some fashionable watering place, where they pass through the same routine of inane amusements and frivolous excitements day after day and year after year; and return home without their minds enlarged by acquired knowledge, their sentiments refined, their taste for the grand and the beautiful
quickened, or even their bodies invigorated. Yea, worse than that, positively damaged physically, socially and morally, by being irremediably inoculated -with the virus of the frivolities, follies and vices of fashionable life ; not only mind, heart and taste infected and perverted, but
wasteful and expensive habits contracted. These "like Ephraim, are Joined to their idols," and must be let alone. But there are those "who are not yet drawn into the vortex of the maelstrom of
fashion. To these it will be doing a good office and a grateful service, to direct their attention to the untrodden and as yet unfashionable routes of pleasure seekers in these wild, picturesque and indescribably grand and lofty Mountains, where in silence and solitude they can hold communion with Nature in her most awful, sublime, majestic and imposing
forms; and whence they will return home with their thoughts enlarged, their affections ennobled, their sentiments elevated, their taste refined and their bodies invigorated , moreover, with lighter and kinder hearts and heavier purses. Aye, go
upon the mountains as Moses did and God will appear unto you and converse with you face to face. His laws and commandments there written on stones, will be transcribed and engraven on your hearts; and you, like the Hebrew Lawgiver, will also return to
your friends with an overflowing heart and a shining face.
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