IV ; PREFACE, 
not as so many square miles of territory represented on the map in a 
railroad folder by meaningless spaces, but rather as land—real estate, 
if you please—varying widely in present appearance because differing 
largely in its history and characterized by even greater variation in 
values because possessing diversified natural resources. One region 
may be such as to afford a livelihood for only a pastoral people; 
another may present opportunity for intensive agriculture; still 
another may contain hidden stores of mineral wealth that may 
attract large industrial development; and taken together these varied 
resources afford the promise of long-continued prosperity for this or 
that State. 
Items of interest in civic development or references to significant 
epochs in the record of discovery and settlement may be interspersed 
with explanations of mountain and valley or statements of geologic 
history. In a broad way, the story of the West is a unit, and every 
chapter should be told in order to meet fully the needs of the tourist 
who aims to understand all that he sees. To such a traveler-reader 
this series of guidebooks is addressed. 
To this interpretation of our own country the United States Geo- 
logical Survey brings the accumulated data of decades of pioneering 
investigation, and the present contribution is only one type of return 
to the public which has supported this scientific work under the 
Federal Governmen 
In preparing the description of the country traversed by the Santa 
Fe Route the geographic and geologic information already published 
as well as unpublished material in the possession of the Geological 
Survey has been utilized, but to supplement this material Mr. Darton 
made a field examination of the entire route in 1914. Information 
has been furnished by Erasmus Haworth, J. E. Todd, and R. T. Hill, 
as well as by others whose writings are listed in the bibliography at 
the end of the text. Cooperation has been rendered by the United 
States Reclamation Service and by bureaus of the Department of 
Agriculture. Railroad officials and other citizens have also gener- 
ously given their aid, and other members of the Survey have freely 
cooperated in the work. 
For the purpose of furnishing the traveler with a graphic presenta- 
tion of each part of his route, the accompanying maps, 25 sheets in 
all, have been prepared, with a degree of accuracy probably never 
before attained in a guidebook, and their arrangement has been 
planned to meet the convenience of the reader. The special topo- 
graphic surveys necessary to complete these maps of the route were 
made by W. O. Tufts. 
