This is Arnold Guyot's 1879 map of the Catskill Mountains. It is the only early map to focus specifically on the range, and the very first to accurately depict the region, and provide a useful tool for traveling it. The far-ranging Swiss geologist was an inveterate trekker, and his surveys of not only the Catskills but also the lion's share of the Appalachian mountain range were executed personally, on foot. His map provides the elevation above sea level for virtually every peak shown on the map. Prior to his surveys, misconceptions about the Catskills abounded. For example, 'High Peak' had been so named based upon the assumption that it was the highest in the range: Guyot's survey took him far deeper into the mountains than prior surveys, however, and his cataloguing of the less-accessible mountains ranks High Peak only twenty third. Guyot, as he did in his other maps of the Appalachians, resolved epidemic disagreements about place names by relying on the terminology used by the denizens of the region he was mapping - diverging from this discipline on rare occasions where clarity in language called for it (for example, swapping Round Top with High Peak to reflect the reality that Round Top was the higher of the two.)

The Profiles

The map includes three profile views of the mountains: one from Catskill Landing on the Hudson, one from atop South Mountain just west of Palenville, and one from Parker Mountain just north of Tannersville. All three of these vistas were taken from relatively accessible points, and represented views that a reasonably hale traveler could expect to achieve.

The Roads and the Rails

Guyot's map includes a detailed array of the ways a visitor might reach even the inmost parts of the Catskills. Common roads winding through the mountains (sometimes linked to little more than a post office) are shown; stagecoach roads leading to and skirting around the mountains appear as well. Railroads parallel to the Hudson are shown, as is the Ulster and Delaware Rail Road, running from Kingston westward through the southern Catskills before turning north and running parallel to the upper Delaware river.

Publication History and Census

The map is catalogued in 21 examples in OCLC. It is scarce on the market: we are aware of only four other examples that have appeared in dealers' catalogues or auction records in the past forty years.