PREFACE. 
By Grorce Oris Snir. 
The United States of America comprise an area so vast in extent 
and so diverse in natural features as well as in characters due to 
human agency that the American citizen who knows thoroughly his 
own country must have traveled widely and observed wisely. To 
“‘know America first” is a patriotic obligation, but to meet this obli- 
gation the railroad traveler needs to have his eyes directed toward 
the more important or essential things within his field of vision and 
then to have much that he sees explained by what is unseen in the 
swift passage of the train. Indeed, many things that attract his 
attention are inexplicable except as the story of the past is available 
to enable him to interpret the present. Herein lie the value and the 
charm of history, whether human or geologic. 
The present stimulus given to travel in the home country will 
encourage many thousands of Americans to study geography at first 
hand. To make this study most profitable the traveler needs a hand- 
book that will answer the questions that come to his mind so readily 
along the way. Furthermore, the aim of such a guide should be to 
stimulate the eye in the ‘Splendido of the essentials in the scene that 
so rapidly unfolds itself in the crossing of the continent. In recog- 
nition of the opportunity afforded in 1915 to render service of this 
kind to an unusually large number of American citizens, as well as to 
visitors from other countries, the United States Geological Survey hzs 
prepared a series of guidebooks‘ covering four of the older railroad 
routes west of the Mississippi. 
These books are educational in purpose, but the method adopted is 
to entertain the traveler by making more interesting what he sees 
from the car window. The plan of the series is to present authori- 
tative information that may enable the reader to realize adequately 
the scenic and material resources of the region he is traversing, to 
comprehend correctly the basis of its development, and above all to 
appreciate keenly the real value of the country he looks out upon, 
* Guidebook of the western United States: Part A, The Northern Pacific Route, with 
aside trip to Yellowstone Park (Bulletin 611); Part B, The Overland Route, with a 
side trip to Yellowstone Park (Bulletin 612); Part C, The Santa Fe Route, with a side 
trip to Grand Canyon of the Colorado (Bulletin 613); Part D, The Shasta Rou 
Coast Line (Bulletin 614). 
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