2007 Catalog > 42. U.S. Surveyor General, Map of Colorado Territory.
Powered by Zoomify
The Second Official Map of Colorado Territory
42. U.S. Surveyor General. “Map of Colorado Territory” (New York: J. Bien, 1862). Lithographed map folded into Annual Report of the Surveyor General (H.R. Doc. No. 1, 37th Cong., 3nd sess., 1862). 16 1/4 x 22 1/8" at neat line. Sheet size: 18 1/2 x 23 5/8". Faint toning along old folds; a portion of the left margin cut close to neat line. Overall excellent.
Price: $1,200. [ Order ]
The 1862 Colorado map offered here is only the
second appearance of the territory among the maps of the General Land
Office. Colorado Territory was organized in the wake of the 1859
Colorado Gold Rush, which had brought the first large influx of white
settlement into the region. Congress passed the organic act for the
territory in the spring of 1861 during the thick of the secessions by
Southern states that precipitated the Civil War. The organization of
Colorado Territory was promoted to solidify Union control over a
mineral-rich area of the Rocky Mountains.
As might be expected, the 1862 map shows much
improvement over the previous year’s map by the General Land
Office in documenting the progress of public surveys and in
presenting new data on the territory. Wheat calls this map a
“credible effort” and notes the following new
information: “The Eagle Tail River has now become the Gunnison.
. . . On the upper Colorado, called ‘Grand River,’ the
former Bunkara Creek appears as Roaring Fork. White River in
northwestern Colorado is represented much more correctly; and new
peaks are shown, including Elk Head Mt., Clarmont, Rabbit Ears,
Sopris Peak, and Dome Peak. A number of new mining camps and
settlements are located, but none west of the Continental Divide.”
The map also shows townships under contract for subdivision south
along the Denver corridor, townships proposed to be subdivided, and
great topographical relief for the Front Range. The South Platte and
Arkansas Rivers feature prominently.
An excellent GLO map of early Colorado Territory.
Refs.: Phillips, Maps, p. 241; Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West, vol. V, pp. 55–56, no. 1051.