Maps: Overland Route and Nevada Territory
Map i, divided into four adjoining segments, is a large-scale representation of the western United States and territories that figure in the Roughing It narrative. It depicts the route that Samuel Clemens and his brother Orion followed on their journey by overland-mail stagecoach from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Carson City, Nevada Territory, in July–August 1861. This route has been reliably established by studies of the overland mail and of the pony express, which often—but not always—made use of the mail-route facilities. All of the significant geographic features—both physical and cultural—mentioned in Roughing It and in the explanatory notes are represented on the map, in addition to other selected major features useful for orientation. The level of detail is not uniform: western Nevada Territory, for example, which contains more features of importance to the book than do other regions, appears in greater detail. The map is accurate as of July–August 1861, except for the town of Austin, Nevada, established in 1863. The representation of the travelers’ daily progress is based on Orion’s letter to his wife of 8 and 9 September 1861 (supplement A, item 1). Also shown are the three routes between Nevada Territory and Sacramento: the overland-mail route to Placerville, the road over Henness Pass (which Clemens traveled in May 1864), and the road over Donner Pass (which he traveled in April–May 1868).
Maps 2 and 3 represent a closer view of western Nevada Territory as of November 1861, when the Territorial Legislature established the first county boundaries: Map 2 shows the Humboldt region, which Clemens visited in the winter of 1861–62; Map 3 shows Carson City, Virginia City, and environs, plus the Esmeralda region—including Mono Lake—where he sojourned in the spring and summer of 1862 (having made a brief visit there in September 1861). Dotted lines indicate commonly traveled trails and roads. Clemens’s probable route to Unionville is shown on Map 2, but the route of his return trip as far as Ragtown is not known; the map depicts the possible routes. The Roughing It account of his horseback trip to Aurora in April 1862 implies that he followed the stagecoach road, by way of Genoa. The route he walked on his return trip to Virginia City is not known for certain. Map 3 shows the two likeliest possibilities: the stagecoach road, and a shorter road between the Walker River and Dayton. Nothing is known about Clemens’s routes to and from Lake Tahoe. On his [begin page 784] first visit, in September 1861 (described in chapter 22), he apparently visited the north or the northeastern shore; in August 1863 he went to Glenbrook, midway along the eastern shore (see L1, 127 n. 5, 265 n. 3). According to his Roughing It account he made other trips as well. The map depicts the likeliest routes.
The following general source books defined in References were useful in preparing the maps: Angel’s History, Browning’s Place Names of the Sierra Nevada, Carlson’s Nevada Place Names, Kelly’s 1862 Directory, Mattes’s Great Platte River Road, and Root and Connolley’s Overland Stage. Clemens’s route to the Humboldt region was established primarily from his own account of the trip in a February 1866 “San Francisco Letter” to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise (SLC 1866d). Three letters (not by Clemens) to the Sacramento Union provided descriptions of the route: “Visit to the Humboldt Mines,” 24 Sept 61, 1; “Letter from the Humboldt Mines” (signed “Wyoming”), 1 Apr 62, 4; and “Letter from the Humboldt Mines” (signed “D.”), 6 May 62, 1. The remaining map sources are listed below.
American Automobile Association.
1989. Iowa, Nebraska. Falls Church, Va.: American Automobile Association.
1990. Colorado, Wyoming. Heathrow, Fla.: American Automobile Association.
1990. Nevada, Utah. Heathrow, Fla.: American Automobile Association.
1990. Western States and Provinces. Heathrow, Fla.: American Automobile Association.
Baltensperger, Bradley H. 1985. Nebraska: A Geography. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.
Bancroft, H. H. 1862. Bancroft’s Map of the Washoe Silver Region of Nevada Territory. San Francisco: H. H. Bancroft and Co.
California State Automobile Association. 1979. Lake Tahoe Region. San Francisco: California State Automobile Association.
Clayton, Joshua Elliot. 1861. Map of Esmeralda and Mono. San Francisco: Britton and Co.
Clayton, William. 1848. The Latter-Day Saints’ Emigrants’ Guide. St. Louis: Missouri Republican. Reprint edition, edited by Stanley B. Kimball. Gerald, Md.: Patrice Press, 1983.
Colton, J. H. 1864. Colton’s Map of the States and Territories West of the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. New York: J. H. Colton.
Coy, Owen C. 1973. California County Boundaries. Rev. ed. Fresno, Calif.: Valley Publishers.
[begin page 785]DeGroot, Henry. 1863. DeGroot’s Map of Nevada Territory, Exhibiting a Portion of Southern Oregon & Eastern California. San Francisco: Warren Holt.
Fike, Richard E., and John W. Headley. 1979. The Pony Express Stations of Utah in Historical Perspective. Bureau of Land Management, Utah. Cultural Resources Series, Monograph 2. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Fink, K. W. 1935. Map of the Pony Express Trail Beginning April 3rd. 1860 from St. Joseph Mo. and Sacramento Calif. Kansas City, Kans.: W. R. Honnell.
Fox, Theron. 196–. Nevada Treasure Hunters Ghost Town Guide. San Jose, Calif.: Theron Fox.
Hunt, Thomas H. 1974. Ghost Trails to California. Palo Alto, Calif.: American West Publishing Company.
Kimball, Stanley B. 1988. Historic Sites and Markers along the Mormon and Other Great Western Trails. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Marcy, Randolph B. 1863. The Prairie Traveler, A Hand-Book for Overland Expeditions. London: Trübner and Co.
Mason, Dorothy. 1976. The Pony Express in Nevada. Compiled for the Nevada Bureau of Land Management. Carson City: Harrah’s.
Maule, William M. 1938. A Contribution to the Geographic and Economic History of the Carson, Walker and Mono Basins in Nevada and California. San Francisco: California Region, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
National Geographic Society. 1981. National Geographic Atlas of the World. 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.
Nevada Emigrant Trail Marking Committee. 1975. The Overland Emigrant Trail to California. Reno: Nevada Historical Society.
State of Nevada. 1981. Directory of Geographic Names in Nevada. Prepared by State of Nevada, Department of Transportation Planning Division, Cartography and Graphics Section. 2d ed. Reno: State of Nevada.
Swackhamer, William D. 1979. Political History of Nevada. 7th ed. Carson City: Nevada State Printing Office.
Townley, John M. 1980. Across Nevada with the Pony Express and Overland Stage Line. Reno: Great Basin Studies Center.
Urbanek, Mae.
1974. Wyoming Place Names. 3d ed. Boulder, Colo.: Johnson Publishing Company.
1978. Ghost Trails of Wyoming. Boulder, Colo.: Johnson Publishing Company.
[begin page 786]U.S. Department of the Interior. General Land Office. 1866. Map of the State of Nevada to Accompany the Annual Report of the Commr. Gen1. Land Office. New York: Major and Knapp.
U.S. Department of the Interior. U.S. Geological Survey.
1916. U.S. Contour Map, Polyconic Projection.
1951. Bucklin Reservoirs, Wyoming. Photorevised 1981. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1951. Carson Sink, Nevada. 15 Minute Series (Topographic).
1951. Graham Ranch, Wyoming. Photorevised 1984. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1951. Independence Rock, Wyoming. Photorevised 1981. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1953. Western United States 1:250,000; Delta. Revised 1972.
1953. Western United States 1:250,000; Tooele. Revised 1970.
1955. Western United States 1:250,000; Elko. Revised 1972.
1955. Western United States 1:250,000; Lovelock. Revised 1970.
1956. Aurora, Nevada-California. 15 Minute Series (Topographic).
1956. Toulon, Nevada. 15 Minute Series (Topographic).
1957. Western United States 1:250,000; Mariposa. Revised 1970.
1957. Western United States 1:250,000; Reno. Revised 1971.
1957. Western United States 1:250,000; Sacramento. Revised 1970.
1957. Western United States 1:250,000; Walker Lake. Revised 1969.
1958. Bodie, California. 15 Minute Series (Topographic).
1958. Trench Canyon, California-Nevada. 15 Minute Series (Topographic).
1960. Fairbury, Nebraska. Photorevised 1980. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1960. Fairbury SW, Nebraska-Kansas. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1960. Gladstone, Nebraska. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1961. Mountain Dell, Utah. Photorevised 1975. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1963. Fort Douglas, Utah. Photorevised 1969 and 1975. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1966. Hanover East, Kansas. Photorevised 1983. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1966. Hanover SE, Kansas. Photorevised 1983. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1966. Hanover SW, Kansas. Photorevised 1983. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
[begin page 787]1966. Hanover West, Kansas. Photorevised 1983. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1966. Herkimer, Kansas. Photorevised 1983. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1966. Marysville, Kansas. Photorevised 1983. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1966. Washington NE, Kansas. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1970. Endicott, Nebraska-Kansas. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic).
1978. Lander, Wyoming. 30×60 Minute Series (Topographic).
1979. Bairoil, Wyoming. 30×60 Minute Series (Topographic).
1979. Casper, Wyoming. 30×60 Minute Series (Topographic).
1981. Rattlesnake Hills, Wyoming. 30×60 Minute Series (Topographic).
1984. South Pass, Wyoming. 30×60 Minute Series (Topographic).
Wesley, Edgar B. 1961. Our United States: Its History in Maps. 2d ed. Chicago: Denoyer-Geppert Company.
Wheeler, George M. 1873. Parts of Southern Nevada and Eastern California, Atlas Sheet No. 57; Geographical Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th. Meridian. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Wheeler, Sessions S. 1971. The Nevada Desert. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers.
WPA.
1939. Kansas: A Guide to the Sunflower State. Compiled and written by the Federal Writers’ Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Kansas. New York: Viking Press.
1939. Nebraska: A Guide to the Cornhusker State. Compiled and written by the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Nebraska. New York: Viking Press.
1940. Nevada: A Guide to the Silver State. Compiled by workers of the Writers’ Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Nevada. Portland, Oreg.: Binfords and Mort.
1941. Wyoming: A Guide to Its History, Highways, and People. Compiled by workers of the Writers’ Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Wyoming. New York: Oxford University Press.
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