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by Charles Francis Saunders (Author)
First published in 1918, Finding the Worth While in the Southwest is an eloquent account of the author's travels through the American Southwest, mostly among the Pueblos of New Mexico and eastern Arizona and including visits to Arizona's Petrified Forest and deserts, the Grand Canyon, Southern California and the San Antonio area in Texas.
Although home to native peoples for millennia and Spanish settlers beginning in the late 16th century, in the early 1900s the American Southwest was a novelty to Anglo Americans. The region had become United States territory with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, but it wasn't until 1912 that New Mexico and Arizona gained statehood. Railroads reached the region in the last quarter of the 19th century and within a few decades began promoting tourism in earnest. Early accounts, such as this one, hinted at the wonders of a place apart -- and a living history as old as time.
From the author's introduction:
"No part of the United States is so foreign of aspect as our great Southwest. The broad, lonely plains, the deserts with their mystery and color, the dry water courses, the long, low mountain chains seemingly bare of vegetation, the oases of cultivation where the fruits of the Orient flourish, the brilliant sunshine, the deliciousness of the pure, dry air - all this suggests Syria or northern Africa or Spain. Added to this are the remains everywhere of an old, old civilization that once lived out its life here - it may have been when Nineveh was building or when Thebes was young. Moreover, there is the contemporary interest of Indian and Mexican life such as no other part of the country affords."
This is an unabridged republication of the original.
