A Tramp Across the Continent
A Tramp Across the Continent is an 1892 travel book by Charles Fletcher Lummis. Published in New York by Charles Scribner’s Sons, it recounts his walk from Ohio to California in the United States. The author describes a journey of 3,507 miles lasting 143 days.[1][2]
The journey and its telling
Lummis explains that he wanted to move to California while learning about the country by travelling on foot. He dates his departure from Cincinnati to 12 September 1884. In the preface he presents the book as a personal record of experiences and impressions, rather than a systematic geographical survey.[1]
The opening chapter passes briefly over the eastern part of the journey, leaving more room for events farther west. The contents trace his route through the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest towards California, with chapters about mountain travel, towns, mines and the desert. Encounters with people along the way sit beside descriptions of the practical difficulties of walking. These are Lummis’s accounts of his experiences, written from his own nineteenth-century viewpoint.[1]
Further reading
The 1892 edition is available in a digitised public-domain copy.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Charles F. Lummis, A Tramp Across the Continent (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892), title page, preface, contents and pp. 1–6. Digitised copy from the Library of Congress.
- ↑ The Huntington, “A tramp across the continent”, rare-book record 33594. Accessed 10 October 2026.