French mining engineer writes of Western travels in 1867
By: Gary SpeerWhile kicking the dust off some boxes of old books, I ran onto a little volume I forgot I have. So I pulled it out of the box, blew some clouds of dust around the room, and took a close look at this little jewel. The title in English is "The Rocky Mountain West in 1867," and in French it is titled "Le gand-ouest des Etats-Unis." What I have is the English translation done by Wilson O. Clough. The original -- and I do not speak or read any sort of French -- was a collection of letters written by Louis L. Simonin, a French mining engineer and professor of geology. The letters were written to an unidentified friend in Paris.
Simonin is unique for his era, as most of the European "tourists" traveling in the Old West in the 1860s and before were English. Not only that, but Simonin was too adventurous to wait for the completion of the transcontinental railroad. He made his trip when the railroad only extended as far west as Julesburg, Colorado, which was some 180-190 miles east of Denver and the Rockies. Denver itself was a bustling burg of about 8,000 people.
I was delighted to find this little volume. I don't know about the French original, but this English version of Simonin's trip journal is only 164 pages of text, plus a short index. Heck, a fellow could read all that without even getting his lips tired. I'll have to give it a closer look and let you know some of the gems that are in it. He began is journey in Chicago on September 30, 1867, with this entry:
"All roads lead to Rome, it is said; all roads lead to the Great American West. I took the shortest, the most direct, and hence I write my first letter tow thousand leagues, nearly five thousand miles, from Paris, which I left but fifteen days ago."
Let's see where he goes and what he finds, shall we?
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