Commenting on his travels into Illinois in January, 1833, Maximilian observed that in many settlements men were engaged in unrestricted clearing of the forest. He noted, "Our canoe man told us that this is Congress land, and that these people fell the wood without any permission, and nobody punishes them." He added that on private or lease-held land, the settlers customarily took trees for the construction of flatboats and that again nobody was "called to account for it."

Having explored Indian burial sites on the islands of the river and inspected local artifacts collected by Dutot and others, Maximilian and Bodmer left Dutotsburgh on the morning of August 25, arriving at Sach's public house that same evening. Nearby was an older building, the first to have been occupied by the man whose father had come to North America from Saxony. Sometime on the 25th or 26th, Bodmer made a sketch of Sach's first dwelling, no longer in use when Bodmer saw it.

On the evening of August 3r, Maximilian and Bodmer journeyed to the neighboring village of Lehighton on Mahoning Creek. Here Bodmer made a watercolor study of the high wooded mountains above the valley and a view "looking ahead above the bridge," according to Maximilian's journal. That night was spent at Craig's tavern in the Lehigh Gap. The following morning Maximilian returned to Bethlehem, leaving Bodmer behind to obtain further views.

On the afternoon of August 2 71 Maximilian and Bodmer explored the banks of Tobyhanna Creek, and Bodmer made a sketch of the bridge crossing it. Maximilian commented in his journal that Bodmer waded several times across the stream until he found "a favorable spot for the view. The rest of us were looking for birds and plants." Another view of this bridge was reproduced as Vignette IV in the atlas of plates that accompanied the publication of Maximilian's journal nearly ten years later.