Strong, William E., Gen.:

$19,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

A TRIP TO THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK IN JULY, AUGUST, AND SEPTEMBER, 1875. A presentation copy, inscribed by Strong on the front flyleaf: "Hon. Jesse Spalding / Compliments of / Wm. E. Strong / Chicago / Nov. 16 1876." Spalding (1828–1904) was an important figure in the Chicago lumber business during the second half of the 19th century. Politically well-connected, he was eventually appointed as a director of Union Pacific Railroad by President Benjamin Harrison in 1882.An interesting journal of a fifty-three-day hunting and fishing trip to Yellowstone via rail, stage, horseback, and the Missouri River, undertaken by Strong in the company of Secretary of War William Belknap, Gen. Randolph Marcy, and Gen. James Forsyth in the summer of 1875. The narrative of the trip to Yellowstone includes descriptions of Salt Lake City and the Mormons, Virginia City, and Fort Ellis, and the balance of the narrative is devoted to Yellowstone, with rapt descriptions of the beauty of the area. While hunting and fishing they killed three buffalo, five deer, shot scores of birds, and caught some 3,000 trout in the Yellowstone River. The portraits depict Strong, Marcy, Belknap, Forsyth, Col. George Gillespie, Lieut. Gustavus Doane, and Gen. W.B. Sweitzer, and the plates include sketches of Fort Ellis, hot springs and Castle Geyser, and Yellowstone Lake.Strong was a Chicago businessman who was breveted a brigadier general during the Civil War, and who travelled extensively in the West. The Yellow

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