Frontier travel’s romance fades as soon as one reaches settled lowlands.

Evidence

Page 244 the pine knots crack and blaze; no more thrilling narratives of adventures with Indians and bears; and never again shall I hear that strange talk of Nature and her doings which is the speech of those who live with her and her alone. Already the dismalness of a level land comes over me. The canyon of the St. Vrain was in all its glory of color, but we had a remarkably ugly crossing of that brilliant river, which was frozen all over, except an unpleasant gap of about two feet in the middle. Mr. Nugent had to drive the frightened horses through, while I, having crossed on some logs lower down, had to catch them on the other side as they plunged to shore trembling with fear. Then we emerged on the vast expanse of the glittering Plains, and a sudden sweep of wind made the cold so intolerable that I had to go into a house to get warm. This was the last house we saw till we reached our destination that night. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 265

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the recurring ‘return from the wild to civilization feels like loss’ motif in women’s frontier memoirs like A Midwife’s Tale.
• SEED: Angle: the geography of disappointment — how the Plains register to a traveler raised among mountains as the end of an enchanted life.