1853 Hayward Map of the United States (Predates Gadsden Purchase)

A scarce and attractive large format map of the United States issued in 1853 for John Hayward's Gazetteer of the United States of America. The map covers the United States in full from the 49th parallel to the southern tip of Florida.

Cartographically Hayward's illustrates the brief period between the end of hostilities in the Mexican-American War and the Gadsden Purchase. The southern border of New Mexico (and modern day Arizona), this terminates at the Gila River. Though primary intended for the construction of a transcontinental railroad along a deep southern route, the Gadsden Purchase also aimed to reconcile outstanding border issues between the US and Mexico following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War of 1846–48. Apparently these issues revolved around an error in the map utilized in the Treaty (an 1847 edition of John Disturnell's Mapa de los Estados Unidos de Mejico) which perpetuated an error initially made by H.S. Tanner in the second edition of his 1826 Map of Mexico. As a consequence, a critical region lying south of the Gila River, which was intended to be part of the United States, was still a part of Mexico.

Other elements of interest including this map's presentation of an ephemeral border configuration in the American West. While California is much as it appears today, Utah, New Mexico, and Oregon stretch from the California Border to the Rocky Mountains. Nebraska sprawls in all its territorial glory from Texas to the Canadian Border and from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River. The Indian Territory, modern day Oklahoma, exhibits an unusual configuration lacking its Panhandle (ceded 7 years later) but controlling much of modern day Kansas.

The routes of numerous explorers as well as various emigrant routes wind across the continent. These include Fremont's Route, the Sante Fe Route, the Oregon Trail (with distances from Westport Landing), and the Old Spanish Mission Road, among others. Throughout there are interesting annotations including comments relating to overland travel, Mormon settlements in Utah, and the 'supposed residents of the Aztecs in the 12th century'.

Wheat notes that the map draws somewhat on Colton's map issued for Horn's 1852 Guide. We was particularly curious about the identification of 'Brophy's Cutoff' and 'Brophy's Rancho' in Yuba County, California. In 1850, John Rose started a ranch on seventy acres where he raised a crop of barley that year. Later in the same year he sold the northern part of his lands to John Brophy who opened a hotel which must have prospered for in 1853, just three years later and as this map was going to press, Brophy returned east to relocate his family.