Elizabeth Fries Lummis Ellet was a poet and writer who had published a popular 3-volume history called The Women of the American Revolution when she decided in 1852 to take a trip west to Detroit and Milwaukee, leaving open the option of extending it. The journey turned out to be much more extensive than that. Some of the place names mentioned in the Table of Contents are:

Lake Erie, Eastern Michigan, Ann Arbor, Leoni, The Kalamazoo, Lake Michigan, Chicago, the Fox River, the Rock River, the Lead Region, Galena, Iowa, Dubuque, Prairie du Chien, Fort Crawford, Point Douglas, St. Paul, Crow River, Minnesota River, Montrose, Davenport, Rock Island, Missouri River, St. Louis, Illinois River, Peoria, La Salle, Mackinaw, Sault Ste. Marie, Lake Superior, Grandes Sables, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.