NEW OVERLAND TOURIST -AND PACIFIC COAST GUIDE, CONTAINING A CONDENSED AND AUTHENTIC DESCRIPTION OF OVER One Thousand Two Hundred Cities, Towns, Villages, Stations, Government Fort and Camps, Mountains, Lakes, Rivers, Sulphur, Soda and Hot Springs, Scener, Watering Places, and Summer Resorts; WHERE To look for and hunt the Buffalo, Antelope, Deer and other game; Trout Fishing, etc., etc. In fact, to tell you what is worth seeing—where to see it—where to go how to go-and whom to stop with while passing over the UNION, CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROADS, Their Branches and Connections, by Rail, Water and Stage, FROM SUNRISE TO SUNSET, AND PART THE WAY BACK; Through Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, California and Arizona. BY GEO. A. CROFUTT, TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILROAD GUIDE," AND CROFUTT'S VOL. 2-1879-8Q. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: THE OVERLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY. Sold by News Agents on the Railroads, at News-Stands, and at the Book-Stores throughout the United States. BARKALOW BROS., General News Agents, Union Pacific Railroad, Burlington & Missouri River R. R. in Neb., Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. R., Kansas Pacific Railway, and Colorado Central R. R. ELJ S. DENISON, General News Agent, Central and Southern Pacific Railroads, Gen'l Agt. for the Pacific Coast, Sacramento and San Francisco. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by THE OVERLAND PUBLISHING CO., in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington With the world as the book of nature, God as the author, and the Bible as a preface, the precedent for writing a preface is established; and woe be to the Scribe who ignores precedent and custom-he could not live on this planet. At the present day the preface of a book is read by the public-if at all-in the light of an apology, wherein the author is expected to explain: first, why he did not do better; and, second, why he wrote at all. FIRST-We have spared neither time, pains, nor money to make this a perfect book. Our statements are concise, plain, unadorned, and, we believe, truthful in every particular. Yet, we would shudder at the charge of being absolutely perfect. SECOND-We wrote this book for Money and Love. For MONEY to help the poor. For LOVE of the far western country-the land of the "Golden Fleece." For love of its broad plains and lofty mountains, its free pure air, healthful climate, magnificent scenery, unrivalled resources, and its unaffected, whole-souled people. We have taken the traveler with us-in a chatty way-on the longest trip ever attempted by any author in any guide book in the world, and have recorded a telegram of the most important facts and items of information in a trip of 5,493 miles by rail, and 792 miles by steamer, aggregating 6,285 miles, besides over 1,000 miles by stage coach. We have passed over the longest railroad line in the world, the broadest plains, the loftiest mountains, the finest agricultural and grazing lands, and the most barren deserts; we have climbed from sunrise to eternal snow, only to glide down into perpetual summer, and the orange groves and vineyards of the "Land of the Angels." We have crossed a level prairie 500 miles in width, then over the most rugged mountains, with frightful chasms almost beneath us, 2,500 feet in depth; and through 100 miles of snow-sheds and tunnels. Again, we have stood beneath a dome rising 6,000 feet above our heads, and trees 400 feet in height, and 48 feet in diameter; have strolled amid the redwoods, where they grow so thick that were they felled, the ground would be covered to a depth of sixty feet. We have passed through the celebrated Echo, Weber, Humboldt, and Solidad canyons; around "CAPE HORN" and the "Dead Sea," down the Bitter and over the Green and Black waters, echoing near the "Devil's Slide" and the great "Sink" of the Desert; descended into total darkness, with jets of boiling sulphur on either hand, and finally through the DEVIL'S GATE, but landing safely at the GOLDEN GATE. The scenery on this route has been the most varied; we have been 9,339 feet above, and 266 feet below sea-level; have taken our breakfast amid the eternal snow, and our supper in a land of perpetual summer, and have glided down from far above "timber line" into a region of continuous bloom, where the luscious fruits ripen each day of the year. The author first began his explorations of the Trans-Mississippi country in 1860, as a Pilgrim," and upon the completion of the Pacific railroad-line, wrote the first descriptive guide of the roads-from actual observation-the "Great Trans-Continental Railroad Guide" of 1869. Soon "Crofutt's Tourist" followed, the publication of which was continued thereafter. The popularity of these books was so great that the sale aggregated 344,000 copies. The present book describes more than three times the extent of country of any book heretofore published, and is profusely illustrated by nearly 100 beautiful engravings, most of which were photographed, designed, drawn, and engraved expressly for the author of this work. ANNEX-A department in the back part of this book, originated by the author, under which will be found a mass of condensed information, indirectly pertaining to the subject-matter of this work—and under which will be found full descriptions of all the large, double-page illustrations contained in this, our new book. From the first issue of our book, in 1869, imitators have been numerous; no less than twenty-five "Guide-books," Tourists' Hand-books," and "Books of Travels Across the Continent," etc., etc., have been issued, most of which were compiled in the Eastwithout their compilers traveling over one foot of the route or at least not spending more than a few days on the road-while we have spent the best part of every year since 1860 acquiring the information,—every item of which we are prepared to verify. To newspaper correspondents across the continent, our books have proved an unusual “God-send,” enabling them to minutely describe the wonders of the trip passed in the night, while sleeping soundly in a palace car, equally as well as though they were awake and in perpetual daylight. Now we do not mean to complain of these flighty journalists, as they are all "good fellows," but we do expect the courtesies usually extended by all honorable writers. CHICAGO, ILL., April, 1879. GEO. A. CROFUTT. GENERAL INDEX: ILLUSTRATIONS. No. Summit of the Mountains PAGE. ... 60 64 70 2 Hanging Rock, Am. Fork.... 15 Devil's Gate, Weber Canyon.. 71 4 Missouri River Bridge... 22 Overland Pony Express.. 6 Hanging Rock, Echo Canyon. 8 Devil's Slide, Weber Canyon. Mormon Temple.. 73 75 22 Palisades of the Humboldt.. 79 on 81 87 89 .... 91 93 26 Crossing the "Range 37 View of Salt Lake City.. 43 Crossing the Truckee River... 95 97 99 49 Pricky, the Horned Toad... 103 ..105 .106 56 Interior View Mormon Taber nacle.. ..107 18 Donnor Lake Boating Party.. 58 263" 66 5 Land Grant.... .13 to 16 66 14" 66 Snake River Pass Gray's Peak. 6% 63 63 ·. 148 Middle Park, Col. Narrow Gauge.. Giant's Cave.. White Pine American Desert. Water Syphon... The Vallejo Route ..... ....... .. Calaveras Big Trees.. Petrified Forest. Yo-Semite Valley and Big New Almaden Quick-Silver Trees.. Mines 17 65 60 61 Canyon City Stages... 272 Emigrant Sleeping Cars 272 RAILROADS. 5 Organization of P. R. R. 25 American Fork... 5 Cost of Construction.. 5 Facts in Brief.. 5 Grumbles.. 6 High School. 7 First Steam Train... 11 Boulder Canyon.. 185 66 66 189" 194 66 193 66 165 Tunnels and Snow Sheds.... 172 " Ten Miles of Track in One 23 Statistical Items.. 24 Hauling Ore in Hides. 260 Summit County.. 261 Southern Pacific.. 27 Ocean Steamships.... 262 Stockton & Visalia.. 66 66 30 The Great Cave... 30 A Little History. 30 Indian Legend.... Day.... Boise Country.. Pilot Peak. Humboldt Well. The Palisades.. The Maiden s Grave. Gravelly Ford... 149" 31 Nevada Falls.. 32 Pioneer Mail... 264 Utah Central.. 264 Utah Sou bern.. 264 Utah Western.. 265 Utah Northern.. 33 The Donnar Party.... 265 Wasatch & Jordan Valley... 116 |