Colton's Map of the New York Wilderness and the Adirondacks.

Good. Wear along original fold lines. Infill at every fold intersection. Manuscript signatures on recto near title. Size 31.5 x 27.5 Inches. This is Colton's 1894 updated edition of William Watson Ely's map of New York's Adirondack Mountains. Coverage extends from Saint Lawrence, Franklin, and Clinton counties in the north, to parts of Oneida and Saratoga counties in the south. An inset map in the upper left marks the location of the Adirondacks in relation to the rest of New York State, and New England as a whole. Colton's updates to Ely's map were supplied at least in part by Edwin R. Wallace, who included the map in his Descriptive Guide to the Adirondacks , which from its first printings in the 1875 would be the essential guidebook for travelers in the wilderness of northern New York. The present example contains further updates to 1894, some quite specific to the famous Adirondack Great Camps. The Wilderness of the Adirondacks With its lush wilderness, rich wildlife, and plethora of lakes and rivers, the Adirondack Mountains were a popular sporting and fishing destination for much of the 19th century. As early as the 1850s it was a favorite stomping ground for such luminaries as James Russell Lowell, Louis Agassiz, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nonetheless, it wasn't until 1867 that a reliable map appeared. The Adirondacks' rugged rurality, lakes, mountains, and rivers proved a daunting obstacle for 19th century surveyors and cartographers. The work of Rochester physician and enthusiastic Adirondack sportsman W. W. Ely finally opened this region cartographically. This map, the product of Ely's efforts and experience, was praised by his successor Wallace: To Dr. W. W. Ely, as the pioneer in recording these unmapped portions, and making reasonably plain to those who should follow the devious windings of stream and trail, is due to the gratitude of thousands who have acknowledged the benefit derived from his valuable map of 'the New York wildness,' which, up to the present time, has been the only one worthy of name as such. And indeed Dr. Ely produced a magnificent map. Spacious in size and with a focus on detail, this map notes roads, paths, lakes, rivers, rapids, mines, waterfalls, villages, lodges, and farmsteads throughout the region. As the first reasonably accurate map of the Adirondacks, 'The New York Wilderness' enjoyed an immediately popularity and would continue to be reprinted and edited in various editions for the rest of the 19th century. The Coltons The first formal mention of his map appeared in a letter from Ely to his friend Louis H. Morgan, dated August 19, 1866: I shall not admit that the Adirondacks are behind your country I am ahead of you, for the publishers are soliciting my production - the Coltons have applied for my map and I am playing coy. They want the contribution but do not think the investment would be remunerative, but would publish, I would give it to them. If they will give me due credit for Authorship, I think I will let them have the map, but not to use for the purpose of compilation and take all the glory to themselves. Ely must have come to some understanding with the Colton's, for the map was first published one year later 1867. Nonetheless, Ely was correct in his fears that the publishers would take all credit for the map, as many later editions removed Ely's name from the cover and title. The Updates The present state of the map shows a far more accessible Adirondacks than Ely's 1867 map. Where even the 1869 edition only contained two railroads penetrating partway into the wild - the partially constructed Whitehall and Plattesburg, and the incomplete, Hudson-River-hugging Adirondack Railroad. By the time this 1894 edition was produced railways reached every county except Hamilton. Some of the most famous of the Great Camps, such as Long Lake's faux-rustic Sagamore, have been included in the present edition. Areas formerly difficult to reach and ill mapped, such as the Fulton Chain of lake.…