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Fine example of Mitchell's scarce 1846 map of the US, including massive and curiously colored Wisconsin and oddly shaped Michigan. Shows towns, roads, rivers, lakes, forts, etc.
Nice ephemeral treatment of the Northwest, immediately before the creation of Minnesota Territory on March 3, 1849 and two years before Wisconsin Territory (founded 1836) became a state in 1848.
All of the land east of the Mississippi River which comprised Minnesota Territory was granted to the United States at the end of the American Revolution in 1783. This included what would become Saint Paul, but only part of Minneapolis, including the northeast, north-central and east-central portions of the state. The wording of the treaty in the Minnesota area depended on landmarks reported by fur traders, who erroneously reported an "Isle Phelipeaux" in Lake Superior, a "Long Lake" west of the island, and the belief that the Mississippi River ran well into modern Canada. Most of the state was purchased in 1803 from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Parts of northern Minnesota were considered to be in Rupert's Land. The exact definition of the boundary between Minnesota and British North America was not addressed until the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, which set the U.S.-Canada border at the 49th parallel west of the Lake of the Woods (except for a small chunk of land now dubbed the Northwest Angle). Border disputes east of the Lake of the Woods continued until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. Curiously, it took the efforts of Senator Stephen A. Douglas in the years immediately prior to 1849 to prevent large parts of Minnesota from becoming part of Iowa Territory in 1846 and later Wisconsin Territory in 1847.
![[United States Independence After The Revolution] A New Map of North America, with the West India Islands, Divided according to the Preliminary Articles of Peace, Signed at Versailles, 20 Jan. 1783, wherein are particularly Distinguished The United States, and the Several Provinces, Governments &ca, which Compose the British Dominions . . . 1783](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/70734.jpg)
![[United States] Etats-Unis](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/62774.jpg)