Van Tramp, John C. Prairie and Rocky Mountain Adventures of Life in the West : to which will be added, A View of the States and Territorial Regions of our Western Empire : embracing History, Statistics and Geography, and Descriptions of the Chief Cites of the West. Columbus, O.: Gilmore & Segner, 1866. [11555]
Embossed black leather binding with dull gilt titles to spine, edges rubbed yet the joints remain undamaged, small chip to headcap, text with marbled page edges, 8 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Marbled end papers, engraved frontispiece of a small herd of deer in the foreground watching a looming prairie fire in the background, no tissue guard. The pagination runs [i-ii], [iv]-v, [v]-vi, [7]-649, [6]. Note on final page: "Whole number of pages, including cuts, 685. The paper quality varies, with corresponding shades of foxing; finger smudges in many places. Good. Hardcover.
"Glenn & Heide, Printers | Siebert & Lilley, Binders," on the verso of the tp.
The first edition of 1858 is Howes V43. It is also Wagner-Camp 312: "A book made up with scissors and containing amongst other articles extracts from Brewerton's 'Ride with Kit Carson,' Frémont's 1st and 2nd expeditions, Spalding's account of overland journey (from the Missionary Herald), Army & Navy Chronicle, the Schoolcraft Article, and Weiss' 'Wild life in Oregon,' Harper's Magazine, Oct 1856...Republished several times, usually from the same sheets except with changes at the end, including the newer territories and dropping Tennessee and Kentucky."
Flake 9446 for the Mormon content. "Part I, chapter entitled 'The Mormons,' which traces the history of the church to the arrival at the Great Salt Lake, p. 313-38. Part II., section entitled 'Territory of Utah,' giving information on the state and Mormonism, p. 490-95."
The last territory mentioned in this volume is Nevada. The final bit of news is of an Indian massacre of a white family in Acton, Minnesota, August 17th, 1862.
The full-page wood engravings are of Cincinnati; Village of Log Huts; Making Maple Sugar; The Last Arrow; An Indian Child's Grave; The Clearing; The Squatter's Home; A Company of Deer; Securing Game; Hunting Bear [with spears, hatchet, and firearms!]; Hunting Elk and Deer; Unwelcome Encounter; Elk Hunt; Wahsatch Mountains; Santa Fe; Indians Hunting Buffalo; Dogs and Bear; Sioux Tents; Gold Regions; Camping Out; Prospecting; Street, San Francisco; Saloon, San Francisco; Indian Encampment; Discovery of Lamite Skeleton; Mormon Temple at Nauvoo; Smith at the Head of the Nauvoo Legion; Death of Joe Smith; Mormons Crossing the Mississippi on the Ice; President's House and Mint; Building a Bridge; untitled engraving of an upset miner's camp, donkey's kicking, men on the ground, pack horses; Travelers Camping Out; A School House in Texas; Crossing the Prairies; Emigrants, with "The Kansas"at top, over a rising (or setting) sun, wagon train in the foreground; Dry Digging on the Tubon; Removing Goods [a pair of miners carrying their equipment]; Dog Team, Lake Superior; Jacksonville College, Ill.; Walena, Illinois; State House, Indiana; The Disappointed Gold Seeker; Gold Seekers' Graves on the Tubon
