New Mexico and Utah in 1859 - Santa Fe, Salt Lake City, Taos

J. H. Colton & Co. of New York issued this map of the Territories of New Mexico and Utah in 1859, a cornerstone sheet regarded as the first separately published atlas map to focus specifically on these two vast, newly organized territories. First issued in 1855, the plate was revised and reissued repeatedly through 1863, passing through twelve distinct states as Congress kept redrawing the territorial map of the Southwest, and this 1859 printing captures a pivotal moment when Arizona first appears in faint lettering and a red boundary line marks a proposed division between New Mexico and a future Colorado Territory, organized two years later in 1861. The engraving is exceptionally detailed for a territorial map of this scale, recording early exploration routes, forts, and a host of geographic features across a sweep of country reaching from California to the Rocky Mountains.

Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory's centuries-old capital, anchors the map's eastern half amid a web of historic routes: Fremont's 1844 and 1845 expeditions, Stephen Kearny's march during the Mexican War, and the Cimarron Route of the Santa Fe Trail all converge nearby. Taos, to the north, sits along the same corridor of trade and exploration that connected New Mexico to the wider Rocky Mountain fur trade. Salt Lake City anchors Mormon-settled Utah Territory in the map's western half, connected to New Mexico by the long Spanish Trail running from Los Angeles. The map also marks the site where Captain John Gunnison was ambushed and killed by Ute Indians while surveying a proposed Pacific railroad route, alongside several rarely referenced river sinks recorded in the Nevada portion of the territory.

This map suits a family with roots across the historic Southwest, from Santa Fe to Salt Lake City, or a collector drawn to the frequently revised territorial boundaries of the pre-Civil War West. The store also carries O. W. Gray's 1886 Utah map, issued after the territory had shrunk to its final, modern boundary; this earlier 1859 Colton sheet instead shows Utah and New Mexico at their most expansive, before Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona had been fully carved away. It is available unframed in a range of sizes.