Fresh from having studied in Europe, Miller was visually stunned by the unspoiled wilderness of the lakes in the Wind River Mountains. “In all probability, when we saw them not 20 white men had ever stood on their borders.” He could not help but reflect on his European travels, where “a single Lake and Mont Blanc are the wonders of Europe.”
Italy and its wonders have been described so often that they begin to pale. Egypt, the River Nile, Cairo, and the pyramids have been “done” to death. Greece and her antiquities are as familiar as household words. What will the enterprising traveler do under these untoward circumstances? Well, here is a new field for him. These mountain Lakes have been waiting for him for thousands of years, and could afford to wait thousands of years longer, for they are now as fresh and beautiful as if just from the hands of the Creator…. Here are mountains and lakes reaching from Tehuantepec to the Frozen Ocean in the North, or upwards of 50 degrees—nearly one seventh part of the globe—ample room and verge enough, one would think, for a legion of tourists. (Ross, 1968, text accompanying plate 59)
