Burton visited the United States on the eve of our civil war in 1859. Landing at Halifax and several months later reappearing at St. Joseph Missouri to start his trip across the plains to Salt Lake City Utah. I have been researching the question of what he was doing in the United States and who he contacted during this period. Anyone have any suggestions, comments, or information? I do have a theory but it's just that no real information. Any help will be appreciated.

First off, Burton visited in 1860, not 1859. Hoo boy do i have a theory about what he was doing between May 3 and August 4 in America, before taking off west from St. Joseph. Unfortunately, I'm writing a novel based upon my theories, so i will have to be circumspect about it.

Rice's book, as I recall, had some interesting speculation about the gap that Mark is interested in, but Burton's book of the trip is called "The City of the Saints", and it's one of my fovorites, partly because he came through my part of Nevada going between SLC and San Francisco.
--Alan

Also the City of the Saints is one of my favorites, but because he had a so uncommon power of observation and, more than that, the possibility of communicating it. His descriptions of Mormons are extremely acute and well founded.
I have the possibility of traveling to Salt Lake City, a couple of years ago, and I did it, of course, with City of Saints in my pocket.

Tito,

Does Salt Lake City today retain anything of what it was like in 1860? Do you know if the libraries have copies of the local newspapers from 1860 and if the general public can gain access to them? At the moment all I have is a map of the city from that time period. I'm wondering if there is something to be gleaned about that period by actually visiting the city.

Came across this a while ago and thought it may be of interest. The link below leads to a scanned image (facsimile) of the invitation to the ball that RFB attended while in Salt Lake City.

http://www.lib.utah.edu/friends/keepsakes/keepsakes.html

As for newspapers, Burton mentions three or four in his _Saints_. The only one I know of that is still in publication is the Desert News. I would assume that U of U and BYU would have 1860s newspapers on film or archived. U of U has a digital archive of numerous small town newspapers from around the state, though those from the larger cities, including Salt Lake, are not in this particular archive. The address for this archive is

http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews//index.php

Cheers,

-j.

Thanks for the site with the above posting. Unfortunately, while it is probably very similar to the ball that Burton attended, starting at 4 p.m. on August 28 and ending at 5 in the morning, the above mentioned invitation is for a ball that was held on February 7, 1860 in Salt Lake City while Burton was still tucked away in England.

Mark Clegg; For what it's worth I have checked the Chouteau Papers to see if Burton had any contact with Chouteau before going west and have found nothing. You would think anyone planning a trip to Salt Lake would check with Chouteau re; route etc. Other historical records in Missouri have also revealed no contacts.

Who is Chouteau?

The Chouteau family were partner's of John Jacob Astor in the fur trade during the early 1800s
The family was founded by the founder of St. Louis (as a trading post) .
This family would have been well known in St. Louis (and St. Joseph) as a source of information to anyone traveling westr
west over-land.
Any bright ideas on why there is no record of Burton seeking information from such a primary source on the trails west to Salt. Lake.