On July 20, 1885, three days before his death, General Grant, unable to speak, passed a note to his doctor asking to be taken to the Eastern Outlook. Because of his weakened condition, his son, Colonel Fred Grant, his valet, Harrison Tyrell, and Dr. John Douglas carried him there in his bath chair. After finishing the last page of his book, Grant resolved to use his rapidly failing strength to visit the Eastern Outlook of the mountain before he died so he could look upon its wide view of the valley, the Green Mountains on the eastern horizon, the Adirondacks in the north, and the Catskills against the southern sky from a rustic pavilion on the mountain's edge.