Bayard Taylor Hated Central City

Travel writer Bayard Taylor visited Colorado in 1866 and the NYT published a series of letters about his trip (which have been compiled in book form). At one point Taylor spent a day or two in Central City, and was appalled by the experience.

Before leaving Central City, I must say that it is the most outrageously expensive place in Colorado. You pay more and get less for the money than in any other part of the world. I am already tired of these bald, clumsy shaped, pock-marked mountains; this one long, windy, dusty street, with its perpetual menace of fire; and this never-ending production of "specimens" and offer of "feet," and shall joyfully say good-by to-morrow morning.

Maybe that's why Taylor's book of letters remains so obscure in Colorado history circles. I wonder, if he were to visit Central today, would he feel that it somehow offers even less for the buck than it did back then.