4 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
scenic and material resources of the region he is traversing, to com- 
prehend correctly the basis of its development, and above all to 
appreciate keenly the real value of the country he looks out upon, 
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. Ina 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 
Geological Survey brings the accumulated data of decades of pioneer- 
ing investigation, and the present contribution is only one type of 
return to the public which has supported this scientific work under 
the Federal Government. — 
In the preparation of the description of the country traversed by 
the Northern Pacific 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already published as well as unpublished material in the possession 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. Campbell made a field examination of the entire route 
in 1914. Information has been furnished by others, to whom credit 
is given in the text. Cooperation has been rendered by the United 
States Reclamation Service, railroad officials and other citizens have 
generally 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 presentation of each part of his route, the accom- 
panying maps, 27 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 topographic surveys necessary to complete these maps 
of the route were made by J. G. Staack, C. L. Sadler, J. L. Lewis, 
N. E. Ballmer, and W. O. Tufts. 
