1838 Hood Map of the Territory of Oregon (Oregon, Washington)

This is the landmark 1838 map of the Oregon Territory by Captain Washington Hood, a founding member of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. This map was used for congressional debates of the status of the Oregon Territory, both regarding its position within the United States and in international disputes with Great Britain - the Oregon Question or 54°40′ Debate.

A Closer Look

Prepared to 'illustrate the report of Senator Linn on a Bill to authorize the President to occupy the Oregon Territory', this map covers present day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, California, Utah, Nevada, and British Columbia. Based on Arrowsmith's 1834 map, with relevant updates, it extends from the Dixon Entrance in Canada south along the Pacific coast to Monterey Bay and from the Pacific Ocean eastward to the Rocky Mountains. The map predates the official establishment of the Oregon Territory, and, unlike Arrowsmith's map, sets the northern boundary along the 49th parallel as per the 1818 compromise, while the southern border reflects the boundary settled in Addams-Onis Treaty of 1819.

Cartographically, the map features several interesting elements. The Great Salt Lake or the Youta or Lake Bonneville, is curiously oblong in shape. The Gourd River southwest of Salt Lake becomes the Buenaventura River, flowing into 'Swamp Lakes and Islands'. A second Buenaventura River runs north into Monterey Bay. The Buenaventura is the last incarnation of the apocryphal River of the West, a long sought-after speculative alternative to the Northwest Passage. Various posts of the British Hudson's Bay Company as well as the American Fur Company are noted throughout. The map also shows Lewis and Clark's route from Missouri headwaters to 'Canoe Camp' near the Lewis (Snake) River. Of note, the complex river system throughout is illustrated in detail.

Historical Context

In 1818, United States and Britain agreed to joint occupancy of the Oregon Country. Both the British, in the name of the Hudson Bay Company, and the Americans, championed by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, were eager to claim monopolistic right over the region. Astor's establishment of Fort Astoria on the Columbia River, identified here, only served to further tensions with the Northwest Company - the Pacific subsidiary of the Hudson Bay Company. The dispute would escalate, giving rise to the Oregon Boundary Dispute and the American expansionist slogan 'Fifty-four Forty or Fight!'. The dispute was not resolved until the 1846 Oregon Treaty which, through concessions on both sides, formally set the boundary at the 49th parallel.

54-40 or Fight! American Claims to British Columbia

Following the transcontinental crossing of North America by the British Northwest Company sponsored explorer Alexander MacKenzie (1792 - 1793) and the American expedition of Lewis and Clark up the Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River (1804 - 1806), it became apparent that control of the fur and resource rich Pacific Northwest would bring great wealth and power to whoever could assert sovereignty. The American tycoon John Jacob Astor, with the permission of President Thomas Jefferson, was the first to attempt a permanent trading colony in the region, founding Astoria on the Columbia River in 1811. This quickly led to a confrontation with the established British-Canadian Northwest Company over this valuable territory. Americans in the 1820s through the 1840s argued that most of the Pacific Northwest should be part of the United States as a legacy of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. England, on the other hand, argued for residual claims to the region derived from the MacKenzie Expedition and its fur trading empires: The Northwest Company and the Hudson Bay Company. The Oregon Dispute, as it came to be known, became an important geopolitical issue between the British Empire and the United States, especially after the War of 1812. Americans adopted the slogan '54-40 or Fight!' until the Oregon Question was finally resolved roughly along the current border by the 1846 Oregon Treaty.

Publication History and Census

This map was compiled in the Bureau of Topographical Engineers from the latest authorities under the direction of Col. J. J. Abert. The engraving was executed by by W. I. Stone after M. H. Stansbury. According to Senator Linn, this map was 'believed to be the most correct and furnishes the most recent and authentic information of any yet published'. The map accompanied the historically important Report of Mr. Linn, Senate Document No. 470, 25th Congress, 2nd Session, dated June 6, 1838, to Accompany Senate Bill No. 206, to authorize the President to occupy the Oregon Territory, and was later re-issued in other reports. Well represented in institutional collections, but scarce on the market.