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Author: Stansbury, Howard
Title: Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah Including a Reconnoissance of a New Route Through the Rocky Mountains
Place Published: Washington, DC
Publisher:
Date Published: 1853
Description:

Two volumes. 495 pp. plus fifty-seven plates (some folding) and folding map, with two additional maps laid into a separate volume. (8vo) 22.4x14.4 cm (8¾x5½"), original blindstamped brown cloth, gilt titles and decoration on spine.

Third issue, after the London and Philadelphia issues of 1852. This work is a report of the first extensive survey of the Great Basin, and a major landmark in the cartography of the American West, based on surveys made by Stansbury in 1849 and 1850.

One of the large maps, "Map of the Great Salt Lake and adjacent country in the Territory of Utah," permanently established the topography and place names of northern Utah. The other large "Map of a reconnoissance between Ft. Leavenworth, on the Missouri River, and the Great Salt Lake in the Territory of Utah...," showing the overland trail, was based on the work of Stansbury, Gunnison, Preuss, and Carrington. See Wheat for an exhaustive discussion. This account is also important as a pioneering botanical study of the Great Basin.

Spine sunned and cracked; front hinge cracked; bookplate on front pastedown; foxing throughout. Map volume Several closed tears; one map ripped unevenly at pastedown; some chipping.