lnhammer and I were having fun going through our reproduction of Baedeker’s United States travel guide, the 1893 edition, and came upon this listing for Tucson:
Tucson (pron. ‘Toosahn), a quaint old Spanish-looking place with 5150 inhab., is the largest city in Arizona and carries on a considerable trade with Mexico. It contains the Territorial University and an Indian School. About 9 M. tp the S. is the old mission-church of San Xavier, founded at the close of the 17th century. –Beyond Tucson the Santa Rita Mts. are seen to the right, culminating in Mt. Wrightson (10,315 ft.); to the left are the Santa Catalina Mts.
Left and right referring to the view from the train, as Tucson was one of the stops on the recommended route from San Francisco to new Orleans.
If you live in the United States, post the name of your town, and I’ll tell you what (if anything) an 1893 travel guide–written mostly for European visitors–has to say about it. 🙂