Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 60/Review: Mapping of the Trans-Mississippi West
Book Reviews
CARL WHEAT'S Mapping of the Trans-Mississippi West is a comprehensive and readable cartographic history of the American West. The first two volumes of the work-the first covering the period from the Spanish Entrada to the Louisiana Purchase (1540-1804) and the second from Lewis and Clark to Fremont (1804-1845)-are by necessity bulky and outsized to accommodate the many maps contained within their covers. These beautifully printed books present a truly graphic picture of the exploration and peopling of the vast unknown land west of the Mississippi. The author does not merely present a catalog of significant maps of each era but tells the exciting story of the many facets of history that resulted in their making-of the hard journeys, the hazardous exploits, the motivation, the mysticism, the misunderstandings and the strange blend of fact, imagination, false geographic concept and political necessity which were consum mated in the engraver's work. The study is divided into four primary categories: (1) Spanish penetration from the south, (2) French explorations from the east, (3) British efforts from the north and northwest, and (4) American developments.
The early Spanish explorations revolve about the search for gold and conquest. Soon after the tales of Cabeza DeVaca's wanderings and the report of the first organized penetration into the southwest by Fray Marcos de Niza, stories of the great riches which they had supposedly found ap peared, and such famous mythical place-names as "The Seven Cities of Cibola" found their way to the European mapmakers. In 1540 Coronado, in search of Fray Marco's wonders, explored the upper Rio Grande and country to the east and added such names as Tiguex (near Albuquerque) and Quivira (a Kansas Indian village) which were to wander about the maps of the American West for the next two centuries. Strange rivers appeared as exemplified by Gastaldi's mythical Tontonteac River which started in Asia and debouched into the gulf of lower California. The continuous coast line which was thought to connect North America with Asia was soon interrupted by the equally mythical straits of Anian in Zaltieri's map of 1566. In Hakluyt's map of 1587 a wholly apocryphal lake, based on Espejos' tale, was depicted. Throughout the seventeenth century California was portrayed as an island and in the early eighteenth century the great imaginary "Sea of the West," which occupied much of the present day Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia, found its way onto maps. Amongst the welter of imaginary geography, a number of valuable factual maps were found: the Martinez map of 1602, the sketch of Father
Kino in 1705 (which exploded the California Island theory), and in the early 1720S Barreiro's map portraying the Spanish frontier provinces and Costanso and LaForra maps outlining the borderlands. What is present day Utah was described in Miera's magnificent map of 1744. In 1800 Walker drew an excellent early map of the Spanish West. Baron von Humboldt's map of 181 I became a model for European cartographv. Unfortunately, much of the Spanish mapping remained secret and was buried in the archives; for who, when thieves were abroad, would publish the way to their treasures?
The early French explorers in quest of furs pushed westward from the St. Lawrence valley and crossed the Illinois country to discover the upper Mississippi. Baron Louis de Lahontan, an historical Baron von Munchausen, described his travels through the latter area and told fabulous tales of the strange peoples and mythical lakes and rivers to the west which he said had been described to him by the natives. Sieur de Verendrye explored the region of the Black Hills and the Mandan Indian villages of Missouri. With their deep penetration into this vast land it is surprising that during this period no Frenchmen penetrated as far west as the Rockies.
During the latter part of the eighteenth century, two Englishmen in the service of Spain, James McKay and John Evans (who were searching for the mythical Welsh Indians), explored and mapped western Nebraska and the Dakotas as far as the Mandan Indian villages. To the north other British were probing westward in search of furs. Peter Pond, a Connecticut Yankee in service of the North West Company, explored the area from Lake Superior to Great Slave Lake and postulated that the river flowing from its outlet would lead to the Pacific. This error was subsequently corrected when Alexander Mackenzie explored the river which bears his name to the point where it emptied into the Arctic. Later, in 1793, he crossed the Stoney (Rocky) Mountains to reach the Pacific waters of the Bella Coola Inlet and to become the first white man to cross the continent north of the Spanish territory. On this journey he discovered the Fraser River and mistook it for the Columbia, an error which persisted on the maps for several decades. The works of these men together with those of later Englishmen, such as Thompson, Fraser, Ross, Kittson and Ogden, who were in the employ of the North West and Hudson's Bay companies, are discussed with the author's usual thoroughness.
The great American cartographic effort came when Lewis and Clark made their famous expedition of 1804-1805, following the Missouri to its headwaters, then crossing the southern part of present-day Idaho along the Snake River and down the Columbia to the vicinity of Astoria and Seaside, Oregon. Their excellent map was published in 1814. Shortly after this the expeditions of Zebulon Pike (i 8 io) and Steven Long (1823) of the Army's Corps of Topographical Engineers gave form to the plains country and the Rockies. Later a monumental contribution was made by Jedediah Smith, who traveled the perimeter of the Great Basin country, up through California, again across the Nevada-Utah desert (1826-1827) and at a later
trip made the first known travels from the Spanish settlements in California to the Hudson's Bay post at present-day Vancouver, Washington (1828). His explorations, by furnishing the link between the Spanish to the south and Lewis and Clark in the north, influenced subsequent cartography. Meanwhile Bonneville was exploring the Utah-Idaho area and his maps found expression in Washington Irving's books. Wilkes had been charting the coast line of the old Oregon territory (1841) and Father DeSmet published a book in 1844 of his travels in the Idaho area. It was Preuss, however, in his capacity as Fremont's cartographer, who drew the first significant map of the American West which represented the area with a fair degree of accuracy.
It is felt that these two monumental volumes will provide exciting text for the casual reader and become an eminent source book for the student and scholar. Although the books have abundant annotations and excellent bibliocartography, it is hoped that the concluding volumes of this series will contain a comprehensive bibliography and index so that the reference value of this outstanding study will attain its fullest measure.
Eugene, Oregon.