Thoreau writes in his journal:
Detroit to Chicago. Very level to [Ypsilanti], then hilly to Ann Arbor, then less hilly to Lake Michigan. All hard wood or no evergreen except some white pine, when we struck Lake Michigan, on the sands from the lake partly & some larch before. Phlox varying from white to bluish & painted cup: deep scarlet & also yellow? or was this wall flower? All very very common thru’ Michigan & the former, at least, earlier. The one dollar houses in Detroit are the Garrison & Franklin House. In Chicago, try next City Hotel (?). The prevailing shade tree in Chicago the cottonwood.
(Thoreau’s Minnesota Journey, 3)
