Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum


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1861 Map from the U. S. Pacific Railroad Survey
near the 41st parallel - June and July, 1854
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Map 4:  Northern California and Nevada
Including Rivers and Towns between 119°30' and 123°30´ west longitude
and 39° and 42° degrees north latitude.  The routes of the Survey Party are
indicated, including their campsites, which are indicated by date. 
More detailed topography is provided for the mountain areas.
18  x  20.5 inches

Please click here to see detail scans.
Historical notes below

Print Type:   Single-sided Lithograph.
Publication Date 1861.
Map Title:  Explorations and Surveys for a Rail Road Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. War Department.  Route near the 41st Parallels.
Map No. 4: From the Valley of the Mud Lakes to the Pacific Ocean; from Explorations and Surveys made under the direction of the Hon. Jefferson Davis Secretary of War by  Captain E. G. Beckwith, 3rd Artillery.   F. W. Egloffstein Topographer for the Route 1855
Scale of 12 Miles to one inch or 1:760320  N.B.: The west side of the map actually  ends just west of the Sacramento River Valley.
Source:   Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.  Made under the Direction of the Secretary of War, in 1853-56.  According to Acts of Congress of March 3, 1853, May 31, 1854, and August 5, 1854.  Volume XI.  Washington: George W. Bowman, Printer, 1861.
Total Size Including Margins:  Unfolded: 18  x  20.5 inches

History: In 1853, the U.S. Congress authorized the Corps of Topographic Engineers to undertake a survey of potential rail routes between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean.  This print is an illustration from the report of the survey at the 41st parallel under the leadership of Lt. Edward G. Beckwith, in the region between the Green River Valley and the Sacramento River Valley, conducted in 1854.  Beckwith's survey was a continuation of the survey at the 38th and 39th parallels headed by Captain John Gunnison, which was terminated in October, 1853 after Gunnison, artist Richard Kern and others were killed by Indians along the Sevier River, in what is now Utah.  The precisely detailed landscape drawings of Egloffstein were coordinated with the maps produced.  The specific location from which the five panoramas were drawn is indicated on the relevant map.  ~~~  Panoramas of the Sierra Nevada and the Madeline Pass
are associated with this map.

Please click here to see detail scans.

To view a "thumbnail gallery" of 
engravings, maps and tinted lithographs from the
Pacific Rail Road Survey


 PLEASE CLICK HERE
Courtesy of William Husson.
panzoom
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The Library of Congress in conjunction with the University of Michigan has put the entire Pacific Railroad Survey on the Internet.  If you would like to read the narrative of the survey near the 38th and 39th parallels that corresponds to the Maps and Lithographs, click on the link below and then read the first and second reports in Volume II.
 PACIFIC RAILROAD SURVEY


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