43. John Mullan. Miners and Travelers’ Guide to Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado via the Missouri and Columbia Rivers (New York: Published by William M. Franklin for the Author, 1865). First edition. 153 pg. 8vo in original blind-embossed cloth with gilt title on spine. Contains the large folding map by Mullan and Edward Freyhold: “General Map of the North Pacific States and Territories Belonging to the United States and of British Columbia, Extending From Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean” (New York: J. Bien, 1865). Lithograph with fine original full hand color. 23 1/2 x 38" at neat line. Sheet size: 25 x 38 3/4". Book has damp stain throughout at top of page near gutter, not affecting readability. New endpapers and rear paste-down mount for map. Map has a few corner splits; tiny loss at u. r. corner fold; two repaired fold splits. Book is very good; map is fine.

Price: SOLD.

This scarce guidebook by John Mullan is also a valuable original source on the early gold discoveries in western states other than California and Nevada. Mullan, the former superintendent of construction on the northern overland wagon road, provides advice for the traveler in a day-by-day itinerary of his route from Fort Benton, Montana, through the mountains to Walla Walla in Washington territory. Sections of the book cover “Recommendations for Travellers,” “Advice to Emigrants by this Route,” “Indians along the Route,” and a number of other topics. Added is an extended discussion by Mullan on “The Geography, Topography and Resources of the North-Western Territories,” and Streeter notes that “one of the best features of the Guide is its ‘Addenda’ . . . which is devoted primarily to the then recent developments in gold and silver mining in Idaho.” He adds that “the large folding map is helpful and important.”

In fact, Wheat calls the map “very fine” and reproduces it as the frontispiece for the fifth volume of Mapping the Transmississippi West. Handsome and impressive, the map shows Dakota; Nebraska; Montana; Idaho; Washington; Oregon; the northern portions of California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado; and what Wheat calls the “new idea” of Wyoming: “The most curious, if not the most important, cartographic event of [1865] is the appearance on Western maps of the idea of Wyoming.” That territory had just been created in January 1865, only eight months after the birth of Montana, making the present map very up-to-date as regards its showing of political boundaries. Wheat devotes several pages of description to the map, but suffice it so say here that the map is of chock-full of interesting details, not the least of which are the fine topographical renderings of Edward Freyhold and the plotting of trails west, including the variants of the Mullan road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton.

Together the map and Mullan’s book offer an excellent, attractive, and rare first-hand resource on the West in the post–Civil War era.

Refs.: Graff, 2933; Howes, M885; Sabin, 51274; Streeter, vol. IV, no. 2106; Wagner-Camp, 420a; Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West, vol. V, pp. 137–140, illus. as frontispiece, no. 1126.

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