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Description

The Best Antiquarian Map of Jackson Hole.

Fantastically colored large-format geological map of northwestern Wyoming, centered on Jackson Hole and showing the Teton Range, Jackson's Lake, and the rest of this marvelous alpine country. The map extends as far as Gray's Lake in the southwest and the Wind River Range in the southeast.

The detail on the map is remarkable. Contour lines are shown, important peaks are named and given altitude readings. The map follows the Snake River through Jackson Hole and so includes detailed treatments of Jackson's Lake, Leigh's Lake, Jenny's Lake, Taggart's Lake, and many other bodies of water. Upper Gros Ventre Butte is denoted, which now keeps the town of Jackson in its shadow. Fighting Bear Creek (today's Fish Creek?) is labeled as are the creeks to the east of the Snake River.

This map is fantastically colored according to geological strata. The choice of bright yet tasteful colors provides this map a depth of image which adds to the object's attractiveness. This map appeared alongside an uncolored example.

This map was published as part of a work that represents the sum-total of knowledge produced during the Hayden Survey's many years in the west as part of the government-sponsored Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. It appeared in 1878 as one of ten maps in the Survey's addendum to the Twelfth Annual Report of United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, the final report he produced.

Hayden, who for many years had access to an enormous amount of resources, decided to focus several of his field seasons in the area around northwestern Wyoming. It would be here that, in the years 1871 to 1872, Hayden spent his time in an area in which westward expansion had passed by. The USGS, in 1973, reflecting on the Hayden survey noted that "[the] Yellowstone area was almost the last unexplored area within the conterminous United States." Hayden's survey represents the first organized exploration of this part of the country, which had until then been only sporadically frequented by trappers and hunters, and it is to this survey that we can credit the founding of Yellowstone National Park.

Jackson Hole in 1878

Prior to the Hayden Survey, Jackson Hole was solely the realm of trappers and hunters. This valley, nestled between the Grand Tetons and the Gros Ventre Range, is believed to have been inhabited a number of Native American tribes since the last glacial period. The first Anglo-American to visit the area was likely John Colter in 1808, a hunter who had previously served as a guide to Lewis and Clark, although this is disputed.

The region was occasionally frequented during the next several decades during the boom of the beaver-trapping economy, but the end of the fur trade in the 1840s limited the settlement of this area. Little records exist of visits to the valley between 1840 and 1860, when the Raynolds Expedition, a precursor to the four great surveys, in which a young Ferdinand Hayden served, visited the valley during its exploration of the Yellowstone.

The Hayden Survey completed the first detailed mapping of the valley, which was published in full in their 1878 report. Shortly after, in 1884, the first settlers to the valley would arrive and the cattle-industry period would commence.  

The Geology around Jackson Hole

This map shows the geology of the region around the Jackson Hole valley, depicting the distribution of strata (rocks of different ages and types). The rocks indicated range in age from quaternary (dating from the last glacial period up to the modern-day, it is these young sediments that compose Jackson Hole's ground) to Silurian sediments that are more than four hundred million years old. Even older metamorphic rocks can be found underneath some of the remoter areas in the high mountains.

The geology in this region is dictated by the tectonic response of the North American Cordillera to the Laramide Orogeny, which was when oceanic crust was thrust under what has now become the Rocky Mountains. The push of this young, warm oceanic crust meant that the subducting plate was too buoyant to be recycled into the mantle, and instead slid underneath the North American plate. This led to massive north-south striking deformation, which is visible in this map in the mostly up-and-down patterns of colors.

The Hayden Survey -- The Greatest of the Four Great Surveys

The late 1860s and early 1870s saw four great surveys of the American West: the King Survey, which mapped the region around the 40th parallel; the Wheeler Survey, which attempted (unsuccessfully) to map the whole of the territories and western states at a moderate scale; the Powell Survey, which focused on the southwest and the Grand Canyon region; and finally the Hayden survey, which surveyed the territory of Colorado as well as the last great unmapped region of the Lower Forty-Eight: the Yellowstone Basin.

The Hayden Survey's most prolific years were 1871-72, which were dedicated to northwestern Wyoming. Up until then, the Yellowstone had been briefly explored by two previous surveys, including the Folsom-Cook and the Washburn-Langford-Doane expeditions of 1869 and 1870 respectively. However, these surveys lacked the resources of the Hayden Surveys: full government support, tens of thousands of dollars, and over sixty men. The Hayden Survey relentlessly worked on the territory, and its reports--most notably in the photos published which were taken by William H. Jackson--were the reason why the senate approved Yellowstone as the nation's first national park in 1871.

The area shown in the presented map was surveyed primarily in the summer of 1872. In that year, the expedition split up between a group dedicated to the Yellowstone, led by Hayden, and one dedicated to the Snake River area, led by James Stevenson. The latter group primarily spent the majority of the summer focused on the Tetons and Jackson's Hole. During this part of the survey, William Jackson took the first photos of the Tetons, and James Stevenson and his colleague N. P. Langford became the first Anglo-Americans to climb Grand Teton.

The Hayden Survey would return to the Jackson Hole area in 1877 and 1878, however, the bulk of the mapping had been conducted in 1872. 1878 was the final field year for all the four great surveys, after which the federal government, wary of the often conflicting politics of the parties, founded the USGS to consolidate the surveying exercise. These Great Surveys represented the last triumph of the age of discovery in the American West.

Condition Description
Modern archival linen backing.
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden Biography

Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, known to the Sioux as "man-who-picks-up-stones-running," stands among the pantheon of eminent geologists of the 19th century.

Hayden's academic career commenced at Oberlin College, and he furthered his education at Albany Medical College, where he received his M.D. in 1853. Despite his medical training, Hayden was primarily engaged in geology, a field to which he would dedicate his life's work.

Hayden commenced his geological career with a survey in the Nebraska Territory in 1856. In 1859 and 1860, he conducted further exploratory work in the Rocky Mountains, particularly in Colorado, which was then part of the Nebraska and Kansas territories. His early work in the field earned him the respect of Native American tribes, with the Sioux reportedly dubbing him "man-who-picks-up-stones-running" due to his avid and energetic collection of geological samples during his expeditions.

By the 1860s, Hayden had risen to prominence as a geologist and was appointed the United States Geologist for the Geological Survey of the Territories. This role would define his career, leading numerous surveys in the Western United States. Notably, from 1871 to 1872, Hayden led a survey into the region that would become Yellowstone National Park, and his reports significantly contributed to the establishment of Yellowstone as the first National Park in 1872.

Hayden's most significant contribution to geological literature was the Geological Atlas of Colorado, published in 1877. This work was the result of comprehensive surveys conducted across Colorado, meticulously documenting the state's geography and geology. The atlas offered detailed maps on a scale previously unseen, encompassing not only Colorado but adjacent areas, including parts of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Hayden's influence extended to academia, as he was affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania for a period, where he held the position of professor of geology. His academic and field work combined to form a substantial body of knowledge that would be used by future scholars and explorers.

Ferdinand V. Hayden passed away on December 22, 1887, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His enduring legacy is reflected in the numerous natural features named after him, including Hayden Valley in Yellowstone and Mount Hayden in Colorado. His contributions to geology during the 19th century remain a cornerstone of American geological and geographical sciences.