The gruesome image was published in Harper's Weekly, which railroad officials considered to be bad publicity and which caused them to become concerned that Bell intended to make money from sale of expedition photos.

[2] After about six months' work, Bell separated from the expedition at Camp Grant in southern Arizona, abandoning his equipment and negatives to travel on horseback to the coast of Mexico.

From there, he travelled by ship to San Francisco and made an overland crossing of the United States to return to the east coast, where he obtained passage back to England.

[2][3] Published at a time when few Americans had seen the country west of the Mississippi River,[4] the book sold well in both Great Britain and the United States.

In the summer of that year, he returned to Colorado with his new wife and they started construction of a new Victorian home on the banks of Fountain Creek in Manitou Springs.

[5] By 1890, Bell had liquidated many of his holdings in the United States, whereupon he retired to England, entrusting the Briarhurst Estate to a pair of long-term employees.

[5] In March 1909, Bell was called back to America when his partner, General Palmer, died following an extended struggle with spinal paralysis resulting from a riding accident.