Yellowstone, Land of Wonders

Promenade in North America's National Park

• Author(s): Jules Leclercq,
• Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
• Pages: 288
• ISBN_13: 9780803245587
  ISBN_10: 0803245580
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Travel / Parks & Campgrounds , History / United States / 19th Century , History / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY) , Travel / United States / West / General , Travel / United States / West / Mountain (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT, WY) ,

Description:...

In the summer of 1883 Belgian travel writer Jules Leclercq spent ten days on horseback in Yellowstone, the world?s first national park, exploring myriad natural wonders: astonishing geysers, majestic waterfalls, the vast lake, and the breathtaking canyon. He also recorded the considerable human activity, including the rampant vandalism. Leclercq?s account of his travels is itself a small marvel blending natural history, firsthand impressions, scientific lore, and anecdote. Along with his observations on the park?s long-rumored fountains of boiling water and mountains of glass, Leclercq describes camping near geysers, washing clothes in a bubbling hot spring, and meeting such diverse characters as local guides and tourists from the United States and Europe. Notables including former president Ulysses S. Grant and then-president Chester A. Arthur were also in the park that summer to inaugurate the newly completed leg of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

A sensation in Europe, the book was never published in English. This deft translation at long last makes available to English-speaking readers a masterpiece of western American travel writing that is a fascinating historical document in its own right.