Full title: “Department Of The Interior General Land Office N.C. McFarland, Commissioner. Territory Of Dakota. 1882. Compiled from the official Records of the General Land Office and other sources by C. Roeser, Principal Draughtsman G.L.O. Photo lith & print by Julius Bien & Co. 16 & 18 Park Place N.Y.”
From the David Rumsey Collection Notes: “Printed in color. Scale 18 miles to 1 inch. Shows Surveyor General's Office and Land Offices in color, towns, completed and railroads limits, Indian reservations, military reservations, outline colored county boundaries. Relief shown by hachures. Prime meridians are Greenwich and Washington, D.C.”
My description: This map shows the U.S. government’s surveying of the Dakota Territory from 1882, including towns, railroads, military bases, and Indian reservations. The map uses a bright orange-red color to delineate counties, Indian reservations, and other features. The map is especially relevant to my project in that it provides a view into how, just a year before Theodore Roosevelt arrived in the Little Missouri area, much of Dakota was still beyond the bounds of U.S. surveying. This map, unlike the Rand McNally map from 1873, depicts a completed Northern Pacific Railroad line passing through Little Missouri, the outpost town that would come to be called Medora upon the arrival of the Marquis de Mores in 1883. This railroad line was essential for the development of ranching in the Little Missouri Basin because it allowed cattle to be transported eastward from the ranch lands.
This map is also notable for its documentation of the presence of Indian reservations. For instance, the “Souix Indian Reservation” occupies a sizeable portion of the area in the Southwest and central parts of the territory, just East of the Black Hills. The reservation is bordered in several places by U.S. military bases.
Furthermore, there are relatively few topographical features indicated on the map. The focus is more on human impositions on the land than on natural features themselves.