1908 General Land Office Map of Yellowstone National Park

Making Yellowstone accessible - the early years.

This is a 1908 General Land Office map of Yellowstone National Park, compiled and drawn by Ithamar Berthrong, who produced many important maps of the West during his tenure with the Land Office. The map records the ongoing infrastructure work, begun in 1903, to make the expansive park more manageable and accessible to visitors.

A Closer Look

Coverage embraces Yellowstone National Park in striking, near three-dimensional detail - a feature of the printer's rich palette and graduated engraving. Geysers and landmarks are noted throughout, but the emphasis is on its administrative use and the illustrations of projects then underway to make the park more generally accessible. These include new trails, roads, ranger stations, and the recently constructed Old Faithful Lodge (marked but not named).

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is America's first and most famous national park. The park occupies the northwestern corner of Wyoming and parts of Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone is considered the world's first national park. Today, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park is known for its geothermal features, the most famous of which is the Old Faithful Geyser. Yellowstone's iconic geothermal activity is caused by a dormant supervolcano, the largest in North America, lying directly under the park. Yellowstone Lake, one of the largest high-elevation lakes on the continent, occupies the caldera's center. Yellowstone is home to rich fauna, including wolves, grizzly bears, elk, black bears, and America's largest wild bison herd.

Publication History and Census

The map was first published by the General Land Office in 1907; we are aware of further editions in 1908 (present example), 1909, 1910, and 1911. OCLC shows 24 examples over the full run in institutional collections, of which just four are this 1908 issue. The map is scarce to the market, with only a few appearing in catalogs or auction listings in the past 30 years.

Cartographers

Ithamar Parsons Berthrong (February 26, 1853 - July 29, 1936) was an American surveyor, inventor, and draftsman active with the General Land Office of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Berthrong was born in Rochester, New York. He was made chief of the drafting division on March 23 of 1907. He is associated with many of the most important early 20th century maps issued by the GLO, among them, important maps of Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, and more.   Further Details...

The General Land Office (GLO) (1812 - 1946) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. Created in 1812, it took over functions previously conducted by the Department of the Treasury. The GLO oversaw the surveying, platting, and sale of public lands in the western United States. It also administered the Preemption Act of 1841, which allowed individuals who were already living on federal land to purchase up to 160 acres of land before it was offered for sale to the general public, if they met certain requirements. Following the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, which was also administered by the GLO, claims under the Preemption Act sharply decreased. The GLO became a part of the newly-created Department of the Interior in 1849. In 1891 Grover Cleveland and Congress created 17 forest reserves, due to public concern over forest conservation, which were initially managed by the GLO, until they were transferred to the Forest Service in 1905. In 1946 the Government Land Office was merged with the United States Grazing Service to become the Bureau of Land Management. Today the Bureau of Land Management administers the roughly 246 million acres of public land remaining under federal ownership.   Further Details...

Condition

Good. Few mends at folds, marginal mends and some reinstatement of border.

References

OCLC 367555018.