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Description

The First Map to Show Any Geology West of the Mississippi Valley (Wells)

One of the earliest obtainable geological maps of the United States, published in London.

This is also an early map to show the US on a Coast to Coast format. The map includesNice early primitive geography in California.

The various geological regions are colored, with a key in the lower left.

John W. Wells says in his 1959 Notes on the Earliest Geological Maps of the United States, 1756-1832:

The eleventh and last map considered here is almost completely unknown, except for listing in two catalogues of the Library of Congress and mention by Ireland. It appeared in John Howard Hinton's History and Topography of the United States, published in London in 1832 and also in the same year in an Atlas of the United States of North America, published in London and Philadelphia . . . The geological map and sections and most of the other maps were not included in the several American editions of this popular work.

This map deserves particular notice, for it was the first to show anything of the geology west of the Mississippi.

He goes on to note that the geology east of the Mississippi is copied from the Melish-Maclure map, which is one of the earliest geological maps of the country and the first modern (William Smith-like) map of the US. The geology to the west, all the way to the Rocky Mountains is interpreted from Edwin James's written results published in Long's Expedition, following his nomenclature and boundaries.

Rarity

A scarce map, which rarely appears on the market.

Reference
Notes on the Earliest Geological Maps of the United States, 1756-1832, John G. Wells.