Introduction: John Charles Fremont and the problem of description

Looking far west: assessing the possibilities of the landscape, 1800-1850

Tunnel vision: the spectacle of the transcontinental railroad, 1850-1869

Passage to an American Europe: the tourist experience on the transcontinental railroad, 1869-1880

European citadels: the early far western resorts, 1870-1900

The far away nearby: discovering the far western landscape, 1885-1915

American log palaces: far western resorts at the turn of the century, 1900-1915

Epilogue.

Illustrations: Central chain of the Wind River Range / Charles Preuss -- Map of the far West / Susan Birnbaum -- Big bend on the upper Missouri (1832) / George Catlin -- Chain of spires along the Gila River (1855) / John Mix Stanley -- Robidoux's Pass, White Mountains, New Mexico (1848) / Richard H. Kern -- Rock and pueblo of Acoma New Mexico (1851) / Richard H. Kern -- Big tree, pride of the forest / in Nelson's pictorial guide-books: scenery of California, 1874 -- Tortuous course of the Colorado River / from Beckwith's Report on the Thirty-eighth Parallel -- Desert view / from A. W. Whipple's Report on the Thirty-second Parallel -- Southwestern canyonlands / Egloffstein -- Laying track on the Pacific Railroad / from Samuel Bowles' Our new West, 1870 -- The journalist's view of the Indian / from Albert Dean Richardson's Beyond the Mississippi, 1867 -- The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak (1863) / Albert Bierstadt -- The Three Brothers (1868) / Carleton Watkins -- The Yosemite Falls (1867) / Carleton Watkins -- From Tunnel Number Ten, looking west / A.A. Hart -- Rounding Cape Horn / A.A. Hart -- Summit Valley from Lava Bluff / A.A. Hart -- Temple block, Salt Lake City (1867) / C.R. Savage -- Castle Rocks / A.J. Russell -- Citadel Rock / A.J. Russell -- Promontory Point, May 10, 1869 / A.J. Russell -- Palace-car life on the Pacific Railroad -- Northern Pacific dining car -- Cover of Crofutt's trans-continental tourist's guide -- Banks of the Platte River -- The Cliffs of Echo Canyon, Utah / after Thomas Moran -- Salt Lake City -- Prairie dog city-- Prairie-dog village -- Shooting buffalo from the train -- Donner Lake -- The tourist and the Indian --

Illustrations: Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods

Hotel Del Monte exterior (1890)

Swimming at the Hotel Del Monte

Antlers Hotel

Broadmoor Casino, ca. 1892

Broadmoor Casino, ca. 1898

Antlers Hotel, ca. 1902

Hotel del Coronado, ca. 1890

White Drawing Room, [Hotel del Coronado], ca. 1890

Hotel Colorado and Natatorium, ca. 1894

Yellowstone's thermal formations

Castle Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin (1873) / Thomas Moran

Castle Geyser and Still Spring / William Henry Jackson

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872) / Thomas Moran

Grand Canyon of the Colorado

Panorama from Port Sublime (1882) / William Henry Holmes

Sunset on the Kanah Desert (1882) / William Henry Holmes

Cliff dwellings

Flowers of the prickly pear / George Wharton James

Desert surprise

A lone palm in Andreas Canyon

Ocatilla plant: Cholla, Yucca, Prickly pear

Enchanted mesa

Apache Indians

Moki hair dressing

Santa Barbara Mission

Glenwood Mission Inn, ca. 1907

Santa Fe Indian building

Yellowstone coaches, ca 1903 / F. Jay Haynes

Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone National Park, ca 1910

Old Faithful Inn lobby

Lake Hotel

Canyon Hotel, ca. 1915

Canyon Hotel lounge (1913) / Elliot Hunter

El Tovar Hotel

El Tovar lobby

Hopi House

[Mary Colter's] Hermit's Rest at head of Hermit Trail

An interior view, Hermit's Rest

Glacier Park Lodge exterior, 1913

Glacier Park Lodge interior

Many Glacier Hotel.

Maps: Northern Pacific map of Yellowstone Park.