Crest of the Continent

Crest of the Continent is Ernest Ingersoll's account of a summer journey through the Rocky Mountains. Project Gutenberg gives the full title as The Crest of the Continent: A Summer's Ramble in the Rocky Mountains and Beyond. Our catalogue lists the Western Reflections edition under Reprints and dates it to 2010, so the words are nineteenth century ones. Wikipedia dates the original publication to 1885.

Our description quotes Ingersoll on why he went west: Colorado "was wild and rough," and it caused "exhilaration of the body and soul." The description adds that the book carries words and illustrations recording what it was like to live in the Wild West of the 1880s.

Project Gutenberg's summary says the narrative opens with the author's awe at first seeing the mountains, then introduces his companions, among them a musician, an artist and a photographer, who travel together in a chartered train. It also covers Denver, its rapid growth and its resources, before the party heads deeper into the mountains. That summary is machine generated, so read it as a pointer to the early chapters and not as a full contents list. Ingersoll wrote as a naturalist and travel writer, and the book moves as a journey does, place by place.

This book suits readers who want to see Colorado through the eyes of someone who traveled it while it was still being settled. It is a travel narrative, so it reads best as a journey and not as a reference guide. Anyone interested in the Rocky Mountains of the 1880s, in how Denver looked to a visitor of that time, or in nineteenth century travel writing will find a first-hand voice here. Because it is a reprint, the language and attitudes are those of its day.

Ernest Ingersoll was born in 1852 and died in 1946. Wikipedia describes him as an American naturalist, writer and explorer who served as zoologist on the 1874 Hayden survey and later updated Rand McNally guidebooks. Crest of the Continent is the one book of his in our catalogue. His author page gives a little more about his life and work.

More about Ernest Ingersoll →

Ingersoll was born in Monroe, Michigan, in 1852 and studied at Oberlin College and then Harvard, where he was a pupil of the naturalist Louis Agassiz. He began in journalism in 1874 with a New York Tribune article on Agassiz's work and joined the paper's staff. That same year he served as zoologist on the Hayden survey.

On that survey he and the photographer William Henry Jackson were among the first scientists to investigate and describe the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. Later he described shellfisheries for a joint project of the U.S. Fish Commission and the Census Bureau, from 1879 to 1881. From the 1890s to 1905 he updated Rand McNally guidebooks.

He moved to New York City in 1900 and wrote a weekly column for a Montreal paper until he retired in 1938. He died in Brattleboro, Vermont, in November 1946 at the age of 94. Wikipedia lists Crest of the Continent among his works with a publication year of 1885.

Source: Wikipedia, Ernest Ingersoll