1878 Hayden Geological Map of Central Wyoming

An impressive, large-scale 1878 map of Wyoming produced by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden and the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (USGGST), the forerunner to the U.S. Geological Survey. It is among the earliest geological maps of Wyoming. Though some earlier geological maps of the territory had been undertaken by the military and by Hayden himself, the surveys by USGGST were significantly more comprehensive.

A Closer Look

Brilliant color overlays the map, taking in portions of the Wind River Range and Great Divide Basin. Terrain varies from mountains and plateaus in the north to sandy hills and desert to the south. The Sweet Water River cuts across the top half of the sheet. The southern portion of the Wind River Indian Reservation sits at top, while a nearby road leads to the recently established Yellowstone National Park, which Hayden had a hand in creating.

Aside from geological features, roads and settlements are indicated. Notable among these are the 'Old Wagon Road' and 'Old Emigrants Road' near center and a portion of the Union Pacific Railroad at the bottom-right corner. A group of mines appear at center-left, leftover from the 1867 gold rush in the region, with miners' towns (South Pass City, Atlantic City) that soon became ghost towns or only sparsely inhabited.

The U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories

The U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (also known as the Hayden Survey) was created under the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1870, with Hayden as its director. It operated through 1879. The first year the Survey operated in Wyoming on a budget of $25,000 with twelve assistants and eight teamsters and cooks. The following year (1871), the Survey received $40,000 and employed thirty-two individuals, including artist Thomas Moran and photographer W. H. Jackson. That year they launched from Ogden, Utah (which the Union Pacific Railroad had reached) and spent the summer in what is now Yellowstone National Park. The work conducted by the survey that year played a critical role in convincing the U.S. Senate to create Yellowstone, the first U.S. National Park. The Survey worked in Colorado from 1873 through 1876 because of hostilities between white settlers and Native Americans in Wyoming. The team returned to the Yellowstone area in 1877 and 1878. Then, in 1879, the Hayden Survey, along with surveys led by John Wesley Powell (the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon) and Clarence King (Fortieth Parallel Survey), were merged to create the U.S. Geological Survey.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced by the USGGST, led by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, and notes Frederick Miller Endlich as a geological assistant and George B. Chittenden as a topographical assistant. Though surveyed in 1877, the map is usually dated to 1878 as it appeared in the Twelfth Annual Report of the USGGST for the year 1878 (the map is also sometimes dated to 1883 as the 1878 report was not published by the Government Printing Office until 1883). Due to these discrepancies over publication date, as well as cataloging variations in the title and attribution of authorship, and the co-mingling of digital and physical copies, the map appears in eleven listings in the OCLC. There are two printings of this map, one uncolored (Rumsey 5941.000) and one colored (Rumsey 5942.000). All told, it is cataloged among the holdings of some forty institutions worldwide, while the entire 1878 Annual Report is somewhat more widely distributed.