Finely detailed map of the area from Brown's Hole east of today's Vernal to the Great Salt Lake and south to below Fillmore.
The map locates the Emigrant Road to California.
Several Proposed Railroad lines are shown. One crosses the Green River near Black's Fork, continues past Fort Bridger (Wyoming) and along the Weber River to Ogden City where it turns south. Another railroad leaves the Wasatch Mountains via Timpanogas Canyon, and another heads west from the Oquirrh Mountains.
Wheat described this as an excellent map "due in large part to Egloffstein's work as Topographer for the Route."
Frederick Wilhelm von Egloffstein
Frederick Wilhelm von Egloffstein (1824 - 1885) was a German-born military man, explorer, mapmaker, landscape artist and engraver. He was the first person to employ ruled glass screens, together with photography, to produce engravings.
Egloffstein was the fifth and last son of Baron Wilhelm von Egloffstein and his second wife Karoline Marquise de Montperny.
Baron F. W. von Egloffstein was serving in the Prussian army as a lieutenant in the 5th (von Neumann or First Silesian) Battalion of Rangers (Jäger) in Görlitz, Prussian Silesia, in 1846 when he left for the United States. On August 31, 1846, Egloffstein arrived in Baltimore with his future brother-in-law Ernst von Kiesenwetter, with the intent to go to Texas, but seems to have settled in New Orleans.
By 1852 he was surveying properties and publishing maps as a partner of one G. Zwanziger, including a map of Bellefontaine Cemetery and another of western St. Louis County as a promotion for the Pacific Railroad of Missouri. Egloffstein was hired as a topographer for the last Western expedition of John Charles Frémont, 1853-54. He left the expedition in Parowan, Utah, after near starvation and exposure in the mountains, and went to Great Salt Lake City with his friend and colleague, the Daguerreotypist Solomon Nunez Carvalho. In Great Salt Lake City he joined the survivors of the Gunnison-Beckwith Expedition under Lieutenant Edward G. Beckwith, producing maps and panoramas of Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and California, published in the Pacific Railroad Reports.
After the completion of the Beckwith expedition, Egloffstein moved to Washington, DC, where he helped edit volumes of the Pacific Railroad Reports and began experimenting with new ways to portray terrain by taking photographs of plaster models.
In 1857-58 Egloffstein was one of two artists, along with Balduin Möllhausen, on the Joseph Christmas Ives expedition up the Colorado. Since by that time the US was deeply embroiled in a great civil war, the report received little attention. It was not until the 1880s, when public knowledge of the magnificent Grand Canyon had grown appreciably, that the report received greater recognition. It contained the first written descriptions of the Canyon's inner areas, as well as maps, panoramas, and illustrative plates by expedition artist, Friedrich W. von Egloffstein. His maps are now regarded as among the finest produced in the nineteenth century, using a half-tone system of his own invention.
Ives' report contains three engravings and three panoramic line drawings describing the "Big Caňon" of the Colorado. One particular stunning depiction was titled "Black Caňon" by Egloffstein himself, and has generally been understood to depict the section of the Colorado River where Hoover Dam now stands.
Students of Egloffstein's work have been baffled by the apparent errors, since Egloffstein was superbly competent - the 1861 report also contains a meticulous and accurate relief map of the Grand Canyon which Egloffstein produced on the trip. It was not until 2001 that an explanation for the discrepancies began to be developed: Jeremy Miller, viewing Egloffstein's Black Cañon in a New York exhibition, recognized it not as a portion of the Grand Canyon, but as part of the Gunnison River in present-day Colorado. He found the topographical map of that area which Egloffstein had produced for the Gunnison expedition, and noted that what is now called the Gunnison River was marked "Grand River" thereon. He found another Egloffstein work, View Showing the Formation of the Cañon of the Grand River, which had been produced during the Gunnison expedition. He then traveled to the Gunnison River and located sites which duplicated the vistas shown in the Egloffstein engravings of the nineteenth century. It is now presumed that Congressional staffers working on the 1861 Grand Canyon report misfiled the Egloffstein works, assuming that his "Grand Caňon" engravings must refer to The Grand Canyon expedition.
During the Civil War he produced a large map in his contoured style showing the Four Corners region for a report that was only published decades later. It shows paths of all major explorations in the region up to that time.
In 1864 he would publish a study of the mineral resources of the state of México based on reports done in the 1820s by his long-term friend, Baron Friedrich von Gerolt, Prussian Minister to the United States. His maps for this book are regarded as outstanding examples of half-tone and color map-making and display.
Egloffstein patented a method for photographically creating half-tone printing plates, which he sought to exploit commercially in the 1860s and 1870s, but with little commercial success. He continued working as an engraver and maker of scale models until his departure from America in 1878.
The twelve-volume work Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, commonly known as the U.S. Pacific Railroad Surveys, stands as one of the most comprehensive and ambitious survey projects of 19th-century America. Conducted between 1853 and 1855, the surveys were commissioned by the U.S. War Department to explore and document potential routes for a transcontinental railroad. The project was of immense logistical scale and engaged some of the foremost scientists, engineers, and cartographers of the period. Their work provided a meticulously detailed examination of the topography, geology, natural resources, and native populations of the vast western territories, producing a landmark study that shaped the expansion of American infrastructure and industry.
The U.S. Pacific Railroad Surveys encompassed five major exploratory routes across the western United States, each corresponding to different potential paths for the transcontinental railroad. These included surveys through the northern territories from the Great Lakes to Puget Sound, central and southern routes traversing the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada, and a route running along the 32nd parallel near the Mexican border. The selection of these corridors was strategic, aimed at finding the most feasible passages across the varied landscapes while balancing the interests of northern, southern, and western states and territories. The territories explored ranged from the Great Plains, stretching through rugged mountain passes, to the arid deserts of the Southwest and the coastal lowlands along the Pacific, all meticulously recorded in reports, sketches, and maps.
The northernmost route, surveyed by Governor Isaac I. Stevens of Washington Territory, investigated a path from St. Paul, Minnesota, across the northern plains, through the Rocky Mountains at Marias Pass, and to Puget Sound. Stevens’ survey is especially notable for its contributions from naturalists like George Suckley and John G. Cooper, who meticulously cataloged the flora and fauna encountered. Additionally, Stevens was a proponent of indigenous cooperation, advocating negotiations with Native American tribes to establish safe passage along the proposed route.
In the central region, John W. Gunnison led an expedition through the 38th parallel, traveling from St. Louis across Kansas and Colorado, into the rugged terrain of Utah, and finally into the Sierra Nevada. Tragically, Gunnison was killed during a skirmish with local Native Americans, and the survey was completed by Lieutenant Edward Griffin Beckwith. Gunnison and Beckwith’s reports are particularly valuable for their surveys of the Wasatch Range and for the inclusion of detailed maps that influenced later routes through the Great Basin and Salt Lake Valley.
Further south, the survey of the 35th parallel was led by Lieutenant Amiel Weeks Whipple, who documented the region extending from the Arkansas River through New Mexico and Arizona to the Pacific Ocean. Whipple’s route traversed desert regions and rugged landscapes, including the Colorado River basin. Whipple's survey also notably included artists like Heinrich Balduin Möllhausen, whose depictions of the landscapes and indigenous communities provided visual insights that were critical for Eastern audiences.
The southernmost route, following the 32nd parallel along what would become the Southern Pacific Railway corridor, was led by John Pope and pursued a path from the Red River to the Rio Grande and through Arizona and Southern California. This survey was strongly supported by Southern legislators, as it followed a path that could support a southern transcontinental link and presented fewer winter weather challenges compared to the northern routes. The reports from this route highlighted the unique topography of the Sonoran Desert and the California coastal plains.
In addition to the geographic explorations, the project saw significant contributions from leading cartographers and naturalists who produced groundbreaking work in mapmaking and scientific documentation. The primary cartographer was Lieutenant Gouverneur K. Warren, who oversaw the integration of the collected data into comprehensive maps. Warren's meticulous maps synthesized data from all five routes, resulting in the production of some of the most accurate and detailed maps of the American West at the time. His work was instrumental in consolidating information on the vast, uncharted territories, transforming raw survey data into accessible and invaluable resources for future expeditions and developments.
Several artists, including Möllhausen and F.W. Egloffstein, a German-born topographer, provided a visual dimension to the Pacific Railroad Surveys. Egloffstein’s contribution was pioneering; he used photolithography to create shaded relief maps, an innovation that added depth and realism to the depictions of the western terrain. His maps, particularly of the Great Basin, are considered some of the earliest examples of printed relief maps, giving readers in the East a tangible sense of the rugged landscapes and the formidable task of constructing a railroad through such regions.
The Pacific Railroad Surveys ultimately represented a collaborative effort that blended military precision, scientific rigor, and artistic skill to document the vast American landscape. While the route eventually chosen for the transcontinental railroad would follow a central corridor through Wyoming, the surveys influenced the development of future transportation corridors and provided foundational knowledge about the American West.