Mesa Verde National Park

The heart of this booklet is a lengthy essay by Joseph Emerson Smith, a Colorado newspaper writer and editor who lived from about 1877 to 1955. The 20-page booklet also includes eight hand-colored photographs and numerous other illustrations.

Click image to download a 8.5-MB PDF of this booklet.

The booklet is undated, but the map in the back shows the Dotsero Cutoff as a dotted line, suggesting it was under construction, and the Moffat Tunnel Route is marked “D&SL” for Denver & Salt Lake. The Dotsero Cutoff was planned in 1931 and completed in 1934, so the booklet probably dates from sometime around 1931 to 1933.

Curiously, Smith’s essay uses the word “builded” four times. A dictionary says this is an “archaic or childish” version of the word “built.” Apparently, Smith didn’t consider it archaic in 1930.


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