2007 Catalog > 19. Simpson, Fort Smith and Santa Fe Route.
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19. James H. Simpson. “Map No. 4 Showing Continuation of Fort Smith [Arkansas] and Santa Fé Route, from Tucumcari Creek to Santa Fé” (Baltimore: E. Weber & Co., 1849). Published in Report from the Secretary of War, Communicating, in Compliance with a Resolution of the Senate, the Report and Map of the Route from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Santa Fe, New Mexico (Washington, D.C.: Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 12, 31st Cong., 1st sess., 1850). Lithographed folding map in black and white, as issued. 11 x 19 1/2" at neat line. Sheet size: 15 x 23 3/4". Age darkening to sheet. Excellent condition.
Price: SOLD.
In the summer of
1849, Army infantry captain Randolph B. Marcy was selected to head an
expedition from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Santa Fe, the purpose of
which was to find the best overland route to New Mexico and
California and to provide the safe conduct for a large group of gold
seekers heading west. Lieutenant James H. Simpson of the
Topographical Engineers joined the expedition as Marcy’s
topographer. Their route closely followed the south bank of the
Canadian River, leading them across present-day Oklahoma, the Texas
Panhandle, and eastern New Mexico. Both men “kept separate logs
of the distance between campsites,” reports Wheat, and the data
they collected enabled them to construct the first detailed map of
the area. Actually Marcy and Simpson each created their own maps of
the expedition, which they submitted in separate reports to Congress.
Marcy’s map is larger and more comprehensive, documenting the
continuation of his expedition from Santa Fe south into Texas and his
return to Fort Smith. Simpson’ s map is in four sections and
covers only the route to Santa Fe.
The map offered here
is the fourth and westernmost section of Simpson’s larger map,
and it shows the expedition’s last segment from Tucumcari to
Santa Fe. Simpson includes a table of distances between campsites
with remarks on the availability of wood and water. An exceptional
document of early travel in New Mexico, it is superb for its
detailing of the Santa Fe area.
Refs.: Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the American West, pp. 213–218; Graff, 3790; Howes, S500; Wagner-Camp, 192; Wheat, vol. III, pp. 10–13; no. 640 (the set of four maps).