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Description

Spectacular set of large plan and survey maps of the area around Fort Whipple and Granite Creek, Arizona, drawn on the spot by Gustav J. Fiebeger, who would go on to have a distinguished career as a professor at West Point and author. The map dates to the period when Brigadier General George Crook was commander of Whipple Barracks, during the so-called Geronimo War.

Whipple Barracks was the primary staging grounds and strategic center of the early American campaigns against the Apache Indians during the Geronimo Wars. It served as the residence and main headquarters of department commanders George Crook and George Stoneman, who maintained field headquarters nearer the scene of the action. The garrison's outstanding achievement was its victory in the Battle of the Big Dry Wash (1882). Whipple Barracks was known at various times and sometimes simultaneously as Camp and Fort Whipple, Camp Clark, Whipple Depot, Prescott Barracks, and Whipple Barracks. In December 1863, the California Volunteers founded the garrison as Fort Whipple, 24 miles northeast of the site of Prescott, to protect miners. The following month, when government officials arrived, it became the first capital of the newly created Arizona Territory.

In May 1864, the fort and Territorial government, moved southward to Granite Creek, east of future Prescott, which later became the Territorial capital. In 1870 Whipple Depot, a quartermaster installation that had been established adjacent to the fort, became a separate command. In 1879 Fort Whipple was re-designated as Whipple Barracks, which was garrisoned until 1898 and in the 1902-22 period. The Public Health Service then acquired it for hospital purposes.

This large detailed work includes areas and regional maps and surveys, showing the roads to Campe Verde, Prescott and other parts of Arizona Territory. The annotations include details concerning the fort, military reservation and the source of the information for the construction of the map, including the Survey of 1875, noting that the map was done on the site of the Whipple Barracks in Arizona Territory.

Gustav J. Fiebeger (1858-1939) served under Brigadier General Crook in Arizona until at least the August of 1883. Subsequent to this deployment, he went on to serve as USMA Professor of Civil and Military Engineering at West Point (1896-1922) and wrote a number of books on various military topics and the American Civil War. During his time serving under Crook, he accompanied Crook on his military campaigns and is prominently cited in a number of official government accounts.

A remarkable Arizona Territorial artifact.