1879 Sketch Indicating a Distribution of the Territorial Domain of the United States into Districts Favorable to the Operations of Parties Prosecuting General Government Surveys
DESCRIPTION
An ambitious portrait of the United States at the height of western exploration, George M. Wheeler's monumental 1879 map divides the nation according to the enormous federal surveying campaigns then mapping the American West.
Prepared under the direction of First Lieutenant George M. Wheeler of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the map summarizes the work of the great government surveys conducted during the 1869–1878 seasons. The country is divided into major survey districts, including Wheeler's “Mountainous or Pacific District South,” while extensive transportation routes, settlements, rivers, mountain systems, military posts, and other geographic information document the rapidly developing West.
The map emerged from the celebrated Wheeler Survey, one of the four great federal surveys of the American West undertaken after the Civil War. Wheeler's expeditions systematically explored territory west of the 100th meridian, particularly the Southwest, gathering topographical, geological, botanical, and ethnographic information while producing increasingly accurate maps of regions that had only recently been incorporated into the United States. Here Wheeler places his own work within the broader national surveying effort, identifying the territories assigned to other government surveys and providing statistical tables comparing their geographic areas and populations.
Published as part of Wheeler's U.S. Geographical Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, this impressive map captures the transition from exploration to systematic scientific mapping of the continental United States. Its combination of detailed western geography, survey boundaries, population statistics, and the routes of government expeditions makes it an exceptional visual record of the federal government's effort to measure, document, and ultimately create a comprehensive geographic understanding of the American West.
CONDITION
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