"A Pioneer Masterpiece -- Wonderful In Its Detail" (Carl Wheat)
An exceptional large map of Utah, published by B.A.M. Froiseth in Salt Lake City and printed by A.L. Bancroft in San Francisco.
The map is remarkably detailed, with particular artistry and detail delineating Utah Territory’s topographical features, along with the earliest General Land Office township and sectional surveys. Particular detail is given to Utah's mining districts, with a number of areas in the Wasatch Range identified as gold regions (in gold) and copper regions (in purple). Further south additional mining regions are noted, as are Indian Reservations in gold outline.
The Old Spanish Trail from Los Angeles To Santa Fe in the Winter Season is shown, as is Captain JH Simpson's Route in 1858-59. According to historian Charles Kelly, who Carl Wheat notes "devoted many years to a study of these little known southern variants of the Spanish Trail, writes that Froiseth's map is amazingly good . . . the only map . . . which shows the Old Spanish Trail, Winter Route. . . "
The route of the recently completed Union Pacific / Central Pacific Railroad is shown, with a number of new proposed railroads noted. In the Great Salt Lake, images of sailing boats and steam ships suggest a brisk traffic across the Lake, between Corrine and Brigham City in the north and Lake Point, just west of Salt Lake City. The treatment of the roads within Utah is also quite exceptional.
As noted by Carl Wheat, who devotes 4 pages to the 1871 and 1875 editions of the map:
Froiseth had made full use of the best government maps, including Macomb's map of Utah's still largely unknown southeastern parts, but at the same time he gives us much not seen on maps till now. . .
We must throw up our hands over the extensive detail provided by the western half of Froiseth's map, much of it never previously recorded; no student of Utah history can afford to neglect this map . . .
A table at lower right gives demographic and geographic statistics. The map includes 1870 census data, as well as city plans at bottom including:
- Corinne
- Saint George
- Provo City
- Salt Lake City
- Ogden City
- Logan City
- Stockton.
Most of the city plans have indexes identifying buildings.
Froiseth's map was issued in 1871, 1875, 1878 and 1879.
Rarity
The map is extremely rare on the market. We note only one example of the first state of the map on the market in the past 75 years, the Warren Heckrotte copy, offered buy PBA Galleries in 2015. The only other recorded example of the map to appear in a dealer catalog was a copy of the 1878 edition, offered by Decker in 1946.
OCLC locates example of the 1871 edition of the map at BYU, UC Berkeley (Carl Wheat Copy), Yale, Amon Carter Museum, Huntington Library, British Library, University of Utah and Weber County Library.