Any observations of your own . . . in the Western country, will come accceptably to me. . . . Descriptions of animals, vegetables, minerals, or other curious things, notes as to the Indians, information of the country between the Missisipi [sic] and waters of the South sea &c. &c. will strike your mind as worthy being communicated. --Thomas Jefferson, writing to George Rogers Clark, November 26, 1782

The European or American approach to understanding the West required detailed mapping, but early attempts to map the West were d in nature. The vast area was mapped only in stages, over many decades, as pieces of the Western mosaic were filled in for Easterners and for those in Congress and assorted halls of power.

Geographical understanding of the West expanded dramatically after gold was discovered in California in 1848, as massive exploratory expeditions were funded and organized by the federal government to find railroad routes to the Pacific. In his capacity as US Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis (later to become president of the Confederacy) was in charge of the railroad surveys. Many of the topographical engineers took their military and mapping skills into the Civil War, among them John Charles Frémont, William H. Emory, Gouverneur K. Warren and Amiel Whipple.

	Thinking Point
	Why would the War Department be in charge of Western exploration?

Scientific and military expeditions to study and map the West particularly suited the sensibilities of the Victorian era, which was a time of intense interest in exploration, geography, and knowledge of the earth and all its creatures, plants, animals, rocks, rivers and deserts. Everything was examined, cataloged, described and illustrated.

That this wide-open space had been uncharted until the cartographer appeared on the scene may wrongly imply emptiness and non-inhabitance. But these Western lands were occupied, by Native Americans whose relation to the land and sense of space made paper maps and technical surveys unnecessary. Their knowledge of the land was valued, sought after, and incorporated, usually to their own later detriment, into maps based on data from official surveys.

Stephen H. Long. "Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Map of Arkansas Territory." From:               A Complete Historical, Chronological, and Geographical American Atlas, Being a Guide to the History of North and South America, and the West Indies. Philadelphia: Carey and Lea, 1822. Map Division

The text that accompanies this 1822 map, from the first US atlas to provide separate maps of the various states and territories, openly discusses the removal of Cherokees from their residence east of the Mississippi and their resettlement in Arkansas Territory, later Oklahoma. The publishers, Carey & Lea, acknowledge "the politeness of Major [Stephen] Long, of the Corps of Engineers, for the use of his Manuscript map of the Western Territories, constructed from surveys made in his last expedition to that country, under the direction of the department of War." Major Long is best known for designating the Great Plains region as the "Great Desert" on this map; some scholars think this designation alone had a very powerful negative effect on the settlement of this area.