The first travel guide ...

There have been innumerable guidebooks written for potential Montana travelers over the years, and these days people are churning them out at an ever-increasing pace. By some accounts, the very first such volume was written way back in 1865, for the handful of intrepid souls who might have been brave enough to plan a journey on the old Mullan Road. The thing was titled Miners and Travelers' Guide to Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado ... quite a mouthful, indeed.

Here are a couple of representative excerpts from that 1865 volume, as reproduced in what is still my favorite local travel companion, the 1939 WPA publication Montana: A State Guide Book:

42nd day -- Move to Bird Tail Rock, 15 miles; road excellent; water and grass at camp; willows for fuel but scant; it would be wise to pack wood from the Dearborn or Sun Rivers, according to which way you are traveling . . .

47th day -- move to Fort Benton, 27 miles if you camp at the springs, or 11 miles if you camp at Big Coulee. The latter never was a portion of my road, but was worked out by major Delancey Floyd Jones, and I am not responsible either for its location or the character of work performed.

Things have changed, haven't they?