"I would rather persuade you to visit the "Holy Lake," the beautiful Horicon, than describe its scenery--to behold you rambling on its storied shores, where its southern expanse is spread, begemmed with isles of emerald, and curtained by green receding hills--or to see you gliding over its bosom where the steep and rugged moutains approach from either side, shadowing with black precipices the immumerable islets, some of which bearing a solitary tree, others a group of two or three, or a "goodly company," seem to have been sprinkled over the smiling deep in nature's frolic hour. These scenes are classic. History and genius have hallowed them."

Thomas Cole, 1836 "Essay on American Scenery"