Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Mon, 8 Jan 2024 13:27:50 -0800 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
For those interested in this rather brief period of Mark Twain’s life, I
have condensed my material on his journey from St. Joseph to Carson
City, found in the section of Twain’s Geography titled “Sam Clemens Goes
West”. As most, if not all of you know, he and his brother Orion took
the Overland Stage. Railroads were not quite ready to cross the
continent yet. He was the third of three authors to write about this
journey and ironically was the least informative, the other two being
Horace Greeley and Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (not yet
knighted). Greeley followed part of the route taken by Twain, from Fort
Laramie to Ruby Valley but then followed the earlier Humboldt River
route. Burton and Twain followed the same route until near the end of
the journey where Burton continued to Fort Churchill and Carson City but
Twain took the "Stillwater Dogleg" through the area Twain called “The
Great American Desert”. The Great American Desert has had many
definitions through the years, some encompassing vastly larger regions
than just Lake Lahontan.
Anyway, I have prepared a PDF of about 100 pages that I will email to
anyone interested. It consists for the most part of selections from the
three books, Greeley’s “An Journey, Overland From New York To San
Francisco, In The Summer Of 1859”; Burton’s “The City of the Saints”;
and of course, “Roughing It”. It also includes notes on all the
stagecoach and Pony Express stations on the route noted in the National
Park Service’s web site. The PDF does not include reference citations.
If you want them they can be found in Twain’s Geography.
Again, if interested send a message to me rather than just Twain-L with
an email address that can accept a document of this size.
--
/*Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado*/
Visit B. Scott Holmes <https://bscottholmes.com>
Twain's Geography <https://twainsgeography.com>
|
|
|