Our Home in Literature - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"In the central portion of the great North American Continent there lies an arid and repulsive desert, which for many a long year served as a barrier against the advance of civilization. From the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska, and from the Yellowstone River in the north to the Colorado upon the south, is a region of desolation and silence." - A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle