Eliza Steele's Summer Journey in the West

Eliza Steele wrote this memoir as "a note book of all that passed before the observation of the author, during a summer tour of four thousand miles, through the great lakes; the prairies of Illinois; the rivers Illinois, Mississippi, and Ohio; and over the Allegheny mountains to New York." She traveled by ferry from Buffalo, New York, in the summer of 1840, on "the steamboat Constellation for Chicago, through lakes Erie, St. Clair, Huron and Michigan, a distance of twelve hundred miles, for which we are to pay twenty dollars, ten each." The following excerpt comes from her visit to prairies near Chicago.

July 7th. --

I fell asleep, and when I was awakened at dawn this morning, by my companion, that I might not lose the scene, I started with surprise and delight. I was in the midst of a prairie! A world of grass and flowers stretched around me, rising and falling in gentle undulations, as if an enchanter had struck the ocean swell, and it was at rest forever. Acres of wild flowers of every hue glowed around me, and the sun arising from the earth where it touched the horizon, was 'kissing with golden face the meadows green.' What anew and wonderous world of beauty! What a magnificent sight! Those glorious ranks of flowers! Oh that you would have 'one glance at their array!' How shall I convey to you the idea of a prairie. I despair, for never yet hath pen brought the scene before my mind. Imagine yourself in the centre of an immense circle of velvet herbage, the sky for its boundary upon every side; the whole clothed with a radiant efflorescence of every brilliant hue. We rode thus through a perfect wilderness of sweets, sending forth perfume, and animated with myriads of glittering birds and butterflies...

It was, in fact, a vast garden, over whose perfumed paths, covered with soil as hard as gravel, our carriage rolled through the whole of that summer day. You will scarcely credit the profusion of flowers upon these prairies. We passed whole acres of blossoms all bearing one hue, as purple, perhaps, or masses of yellow or rose; and then again a carpet of every color intermixed, or narrow bands, as if a rainbow had fallen upon the verdant slopes. When the sun flooded this Mosaic floor with light, and the summer breeze stirred among their leaves, the irredescent glow was beautiful and wondrous beyond any thing I had ever conceived....

The gentle undulating surface of these prairies, prevent sameness, and add variety to its lights and shades. Occasionally, when a swell is rather higher than the rest, it gives you an extended view over the country, and you may mark a dark green waving line of trees near the distant horizon, which are shading some gentle stream from the sun's absorbing rays... Oak openings also occur, green groves, arranged with the regularity of art, making shady, alleys, for the heated traveler....

The oasis, or 'oak openings,' upon the prairies are very beautiful. We passed through one this morning. It presented the appearance of a lawn, or park around some gentleman's seat. The trees are generally oak, arranged in pretty clumps or clusters upon the smooth grass--or in long avenues, as if planted thus by man....

Prairie land occupies two thirds of the State of Illinois; the dearth of water, and wood, and stone, will prevent them from being settled very thickly, except in the vicinity of the rivers; so that these beautiful plains will long remain undisturbed to gratify the traveler's eye.

From A Summer Journey in the West by Eliza Steele. Arno Press, New York, 1975. Reprint of the 1841 edition published by J.S. Taylor, New York. ISBN: 040506845X. Although out of print, A Summer Journey in the West is available from Ayer Company Publishers, phone: (888)-267-7323, FAX: (603)-922-3348.