Topographical Map of the Road from Missouri to Oregon Commencing at the Mouth of the Kansas in the Missouri to Oregon Commencing at the Mouth of the Wallah Wallah in the Columbia . From the field notes and journal of Capt. J. C. Fremont

First edition. Seven folded maps. Folio. First issue of the first map "to show the Oregon Trail accurately" (Rumsey). One of the greatest monuments to the cartography of the American West. Charles Preuss, born George Karl Ludwig Preuss in Höhscheid, Prussia in 1803, served as the cartographer on Fremont's first and second expeditions and drew all of the maps which accompany Fremont's reports. Preuss also produced the present masterful map of the Oregon Trail. It is drawn to a very detailed scale, ten miles to an inch, and in addition to providing accurate cartographical information about the whole of the 1,670-mile route between the Missouri and the Columbia rivers, the sheets combine to give a real feeling of the daily progress of the expedition (in 1842 and 1843, between June 10 and Oct. 26) by including indicators of where and when each overnight camp was set, where each noon-day halt was called, and the total distance from the starting point of Westport Landing. Longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates are also given, as are daily "Meteorological Observations" and "Remarks," including notes on the availability of game, water, grazing, and the friendliness (or otherwise) of local Indian tribes. "More than any other persons, John Charles Fremont and Charles Preuss dominate the cartography of the American West during the three years before the gold rush.Owing to its rarity and to its long having stood in the shadow of the more widely known and distributed Fremont-Preuss map of 1845, Preuss' sectional map of 1846 has been insufficiently appreciated by students of Western history. In particular, those interested either in Fremont's travels in 1842-43 or the revolution of the transcontinental wagon roads will find that the map rewards close study" (Wheat). This example a superb copy of the first edition (a second edition would be published in 1849), with the maps essentially bound en plano with only a single vertical centerfold to each sheet, rather than being folded to octavo size. Wheat, Transmississippi 523; Wagner-Camp 115 (note); Streeter sale 3100; Phillips, Maps, p.642; Graff 3360; Eberstadt 106:266; Reese, Best of the West 93; Rumsey 2773.001-.007 Contemporary morocco backed marbled paper covered boards, morocco label on the upper cover, repairs to hinges. very minor foxing, repair to fold on final map.…