Continental Divide

[Benjamin Zimmer]

[Sorry-- ignore posting with the wrong subject line.]

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 14:35:19 -0600, Mullins, Bill
<Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:

>This doesn't beat your govt documents, but is early . . .
>
>_Rocky Mountain News_, (Denver, CO), Sept 15 1869, p.2
>"First, it is eveident that this pest spreads over a large extent of
territory, being found in an east and west direction from the summit of
the continental divide to the Missouri river, and north and sout from
central New Mexico to the Black Hills."

The Making of America database <http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/> has
citations from around the same time:

     Report of J. Ross Browne on the mineral resources of the
     states and territories west of the Rocky Mountains. [1867]
     Washington, Gov't print. off., 1868.
     Then follows the Snowy range, or the range with its system
     of parks - the crest or sierra of the mountain mass - while
     "over the range" includes all west of the continental divide.

     Preliminary field report of the United States Geological
     survey of Colorado and New Mexico.
     Washington, Gov't print. off., 1869.
     In a belt, of which it would be difficult to define the
     limits, but which may be generally stated as lying east and
     west of the great continental divide as far as the gneiss or
     granite extends, and reaching north and south as far as
     investigation has made the Rocky Mountain chain known to us,
     lie the ores of the precious, and some of the baser, metals.

--Ben Zimmer