Visit to Salt Lake; Being a Journey Across the Plains and a Residence in the Mormon Settlements at Utah

London: Smith, Elder, and Co, 1857. First Edition. 346+16pp. Octavo [20.5 cm] Yellow pebbled cloth. Wear to corners and sunning to backstrip. Bookplate on front pastedown and name blind stamped on the front free endsheet. Otherwise very good. Chandless crossed the plains as a wagon driver in the summer of 1855, departing from Atchison in July and arriving in Salt Lake City on the first of November. The long description of Utah and the Mormons is based on his stay of two months, before departing for California through southern Utah and Nevada: "Los Vegos [sic] stands in the middle of a valley some thirty-five miles wide, and of considerable length, its lower end opening on the Colorado." - p.293

The fold-out 'Map shewing [sic] the Author's Route' is present at the front of the volume. which Carl Wheat noted was "One of the few 'Mormon Maps' disclosing the route southwest of Salt Lake City past Nephi, Fillmore and Cedar City and thence by desert, to southern California." Wagner/Camp 287. Howes C286. Flake/Draper 1252. Wheat 910. Eberstadt 128: 171.