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Fine chromolithographed map delineating the timber composition and land-use character of the Battlement Mesa Forest Reserve in west-central Colorado, one of the earliest scientifically surveyed forest reserves in the United States. The map was prepared by dendrologist George B. Sudworth and issued in 1898, six years after the reserve’s establishment by presidential proclamation under the Forest Reserve Act of 1891.
Printed by Julius Bien & Co. of New York, the map spans a region from the Grand (now Colorado) River in the north to the North Fork of the Gunnison and West Elk Mountains in the south, taking in rugged terrain around Mount Lamborn, Mount Gunnison, and Battlement Mesa. With a scale of 1 inch to 4 miles, the sheet integrates U.S. Geological Survey topography with finely differentiated color-coded land classifications. The legend identifies a dozen distinct timber and brush types, from mature Engelmann spruce and alpine fir to areas dominated by Douglas fir, aspen, or pinyon–juniper, as well as sagebrush, grassland, ranchland (occupied and abandoned), and fire-damaged areas. Symbols denote sawmills, coal mines, lava outcrops, and forest boundaries.
The map reflects the U.S. Geological Survey’s growing role in natural resource assessment and the emerging ethos of scientific land management that would be formalized with the creation of the U.S. Forest Service in 1905.
A striking example of late 19th-century thematic cartography, combining data-rich forestry science with the chromolithographic craftsmanship for which Bien’s firm was renowned. The Battlement Mesa Forest Reserve would later be reorganized into portions of the White River and Grand Mesa National Forests, making this map a foundational document in the cartographic and administrative history of the U.S. forest reserve system.
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