First Version of This Important Map of the Southwest

"Johnson's California Territories of New Mexico and Utah", Johnson & Browning

This is the first version (second issue) of this important map. It shows the proposed division of Utah with the border drawn along the western extent of the Great Salt Lake at the 113th meridian and then wandering southwest from Lake Sevier to the New Mexico boundary and the Virgin River. The proposed name for the new territory was hastily added to this plate with the name Nevada overlapping with Utah. The Confederate Territory of Arizona appears below New Mexico and a dotted line designates the territory, but it is not colored to show the separation.

Johnson’s maps of the American Southwest occupy a temporal crossroads in the cartographic history of the United States after California statehood, before the adjacent territories formalized their boundaries, and before the transcontinental railroad was completed. The many different states of this map show dramatic and rapid changes. Besides the transitional territorial boundaries, the maps are of interest for the depiction of Pony Express routes, wagon trails, military expedition routes, the locations of gold and silver mines, Indian tribes, and much more relating to the geography and history of the region.

Due to population growth, mining activity, lawlessness, and Indian troubles, there were movements in the region to form smaller, more manageable territories. The mostly non-Mormon residents of the Washoe region of western Utah Territory desired to separate from the Mormon dominated eastern part of the territory resulting in the formation of Nevada Territory. The primarily Texan immigrants in the southern part of New Mexico also sought to form a territory.

References: Wheat (TMW) #1027.

Condition: B+

Contemporary color with light toning, some minor scattered foxing, and faint offsetting.