PREFACE. 

 By George Otis Smith. 



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 

 handbook 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 selection of the essentials in the scene 

 that so rapidly unfolds itself in the crossing of the continent. In 

 recognition of the opportunity 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 has pub- 

 lished a series of guidebooks^ covering four of the older railroad 

 routes west of the Mississippi. The present volume is an addition 

 to this series and covers one of the finest scenic routes of the con- 

 tinent. 



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 authorita- 

 tive information that may enable the reader to realize adequately the 



^Guidebook of the western United States: Part A, The Northern Pacific 

 Route, with a side trip to Yellowstone Park (Bulletin 611) ; Part B, The Over- 

 land Route, with a side trip to Yellowstone Park (Bulletin 612) ; Part C. The 

 Santa Fe Route, with a side trip to the Grand Can:, on of the Colorado (Bulletin 

 613) ; Part D. The Shasta Route and Coast Line (Bulletin 614). The.se bul- 

 letins are for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C, at 

 50 cents a copy. 



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