1852 Stansbury's Expedition to the Great Salt Lake
By: Howard Stansbury
Date: 1852 (Published) Philadelphia
Dimensions: Map of Salt Lake City and Region: 43 x 29.8 inches (109.22 x 75.7 cm)
Map of Expedition to Salt Lake: 28.3 x 66.8 inches (71.9 x 169.7 cm)
This unique offering is among the most important of all cartographic and historic accomplishments of the mid 19th century pertaining to the Great Salt Lake Region, and Mormon history. The two maps and report in book form were of invaluable importance in the ongoing settlement of western territories in America.
The report was ordered by the United States Senate and documents Stansbury's long expedition from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the Great Salt Lake, and his circumnavigation of the entire lake. Stansbury's account includes the study of local Indigenous tribes, the Mormons who had settled in the region, and an extensive appendix on botany, zoology and geology. The report also includes 53 lovely plates illustrating flora and fauna of the region. Five plates featuring reptiles are missing.
The first map is the earliest obtainable map of the Salt Lake region and is entitled Map of the Great Salt Lake and Adjacent Country in the Territory of Utah. It details Stansbury's extensive exploration of the Great Salt Lake Basin, which served to establish much topography and many places names of northwestern Utah.
The map is highly detailed and in addition to its geographical and topographical points, contains interesting and useful notes to aid travelers in other exploratory expeditions or wagon trains, including a note of caution concerning the desert to the west of the Great Salt Lake which states that "The desert consists of clay and sand impregnated with salt. When wet it has the consistency of mortar," invaluable information for wagon trains headed farther west. Other notes suggest what time of year is best for travel, that forage and water must be carried for cattle, and that travel at night is advised.
The second map is entitled Map of a Reconnaissance between Fort Leavenworth and the Missouri River, and the Great Salt Lake in the Territory of Utah, made in 1849 and 1850. It was made according to the orders of some of the most important names in the cartography of the American west, and the map itself is of great cartographic and historical importance.
This large-scale map covers the Great Plains, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado in considerable detail, at a scale of about 1" to approximately 16 miles. Detail is especially notable in Colorado, the Laramie Mountains (labeled as the Black Hills), and in the vicinity of Salt Lake and its environs. It labels territories of the various Indian tribes , all rivers, streams and springs, mountains are named, and the various routes taken by Stansbury are dated, noted and colored. Routes taken by other explorers are also noted, and Stansbury even suggests routes for future development of roads in mountainous areas.
Condition: The maps are bound in a separate booklet from the text. They are separated along several fold lines, which is fairly common for publications of this manner. The text is bound in a contemporary spine and covers.
Inventory #12206
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