The Man Who Walked the Continent: A Fifteen-Year Pilgrimage Ends in Seattle
Frank M. Streamer arrives in the Pacific Northwest after completing a staggering 14,000-mile journey on foot across the United States, offering a rare glimpse into the grueling reality of 19th-century travel.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
FIFTEEN YEARS' FOOT-TRAVEL IN THE FAR-WEST.
SEATTLE, Oct. 14, 1876.
Frank M. Streamer arrived here this morning for the Steilacoom and Puget Sound Railroad, with supplies for the logging camp in that vicinity.
The following letter from Mr. Streamer was received by our journal:
"Sir: I am told by the old settlers here that your journal is the first and oldest in this city. As such, permit me to give you for publication a formal account of my last movements, having completed the fifteen years' foot journey from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, over the Black Hills of Dakota, prairies of Indiana, plains of Illinois, and lake-shores of Michigan, up to Puget Sound thence to Detroit, via the Canada, over New York down the St. Lawrence, Quebec, Island of Montreal, and in the summer of 1875, I left my home.
The second pilgrimage was from the shores of the Black Hills, over the Yellowstone River, Upper Missouri river, as one blue-ribboned Montana river, the Minnesota river to Clinton, across Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania to my home at the noted Steel City of Pittsburg on the Blue Juniata, in 1874. Distance, 1,000 miles.
The third pilgrimage was from my native home in Williamsburg, Brown County, Pennsylvania, to the head of St. John's Florida river, over the States of West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and return, from May 1st, 1874. Time, 105 days; average 23 miles per day—hazards, 3,509 miles.
The fourth pilgrimage, which is the last of my three pilgrimages, was accomplished in six months from Central Pennsylvania, a labyrinthine trailing over the mineral and timber lands of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, crossing the cotton lands, swamps and bayous of Mississippi, into the western wilds, antelope and buffalo tracks, and made trails of Texas, making a V-shaped travel to the old city of Chihuahua, in about 51 days; thence over the otherado region of New Mexico, then through Arizona; rushing from the Gila and Salt up to Prescott, and town to the dreary deadly deserts of the Colorado river, to Yuma, as far to San Bernardino and Los Angeles to the Pacific coast, Monterey, Sacramento and Oakland, all the gold and cattle pastures, and old mining camps, Yosemite, Palisades, Big Trees, to Sacramento; up to Shasta, winding over from the Rogue river to Oregon City; then across the Cascades at The Dalles, from thence through the Willamette, Simcoe, and Yakima valleys, by way of the North to this, the most promising and picturesque city of the entire Pacific Coast. Total traveled, 530 days; average per day, 16 miles; true distance traveled, 7,000 miles. Total number of miles traveled on the three long pilgrimages, 14,000-54. In the last fifteen MONTHS I have walked 11,224 miles.
FRANK M. STREAMER."
In an era before interstate highways or commercial aviation, Frank Streamer’s journey highlights the sheer physical endurance required to traverse the American West. His arrival in Seattle—a city still in its infancy as a logging and shipping hub—underscores how remote and difficult it was to reach the Pacific Northwest in 1876, making his feat of walking over 14,000 miles not just a personal challenge, but a monumental logistical achievement.
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