Montana, Idaho & Wyoming Map 1884 Township Print - Helena, Boise, Cheyenne

Samuel Augustus Mitchell Jr., working through Wm. M. Bradley & Bro. of Philadelphia, issued this Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming sheet in 1884, part of his New General Atlas published in 1886. This printing is hand-colored with relief shown through hachures, combining all three Rocky Mountain territories onto a single sheet, the only edition in the store to map this trio together rather than as separate states or a two-territory pairing. The sheet maps Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming jointly, tracking settlements, rivers, and railroads across a vast, thinly populated mountain-and-plains region still years from statehood for all three territories.

Mountain ranges dominate the sheet's terrain across all three territories, the shared Rocky Mountain geography that had shaped settlement patterns toward mining camps and rail depots rather than evenly distributed towns. Rivers, including the upper Missouri, Snake, and North Platte systems, cut through the mountainous terrain as the primary routes settlers and rail lines actually followed. Railroads appear threading through the more developed portions of the territories, a network considerably expanded since this collection's earlier 1874 Idaho-and-Montana and separate Wyoming sheets. Together the mountains, the rivers, and the railroads sketch three territories whose settlement still clung closely to the routes carved out by their shared, rugged terrain.

For a family with roots in any of the three territories, or a collector building out the northern Rockies' maps across the decades, this sheet has a specific pull. The store also carries Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming separately from Cram's 1893 and 1883 editions, and from Asher & Adams' 1874 atlas, which paired Idaho with western Montana and mapped eastern Montana and Wyoming as their own separate sheets; this 1884 Mitchell sheet is the only one in the store to combine all three territories onto a single map. It's printed unframed and available in a range of sizes to fit whatever wall it's headed for.