Map of Texas, compiled from surveys on record in the General Land Office of the Republic, 1839

This post was underwritten by a generous contribution from the Texas Historical Foundation.

Richard S. Hunt, Jesse F. Randel, Map of Texas, compiled from surveys on record in the General Land Office of the Republic, J.H. Colton, New York: 1839, Map #93858, Holcomb Digital Map Collection, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.

In the nearly four hundred years that it took for Texas to take its current shape the space changed from an extensive, unexplored and sparsely settled frontier under the Spanish Crown to its iconic and easily recognizable outline. Mapping Texas: From Frontier to the Lone Star State traces the cartographic history of Texas from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Fifty rare maps from the collections of the Texas General Land Office and the personal collection of Frank and Carol Holcomb, of Houston, are on display. Additional maps are on loan from The Bryan Museum in Galveston and the Witte Museum in San Antonio. This exhibit runs at the Houston Museum of Natural Science through October 8, 2017.

This large, colorful map of Texas appeared in Richard Hunt and Jesse Randel’s essential Guide to the Republic of Texas. Remarks from Hunt & Randel’s Guide say the map is “necessarily imperfect in some details,” but is remarkably accurate as it is based from the coast to the San Antonio Road on existing surveys, and accurately follows the principal rivers for more than 100 miles above the road. Early claims said, “this map is the only one which makes any pretentions to being based on accurate surveys.”[1]

[left] San Antonio de Bexar, at the confluence of several roads. The San Antonio Road is prominently labeled. [right] The Old Spanish military road from Santa Fe to Bexar stretches across the Range of the Comanche Indians in the western portion of the map.

The map essentially utilizes the same view as the 1829 Stephen F. Austin Mapa Original de Texas… showing only the eastern two-thirds of the Republic. The counties of the Republic are laid out in contrasting colors for easy identification, with many of the early empresario colonies subtly labeled in lighter text. A network of roads spans southeast Texas, with many coming together in places like San Antonio, San Felipe, Houston, and Nacogdoches. The recently-established city of Austin, then in Bastrop County, is relatively isolated on the Colorado River.

[left] Houston and Nacogdoches are shown as hubs of transportation in South and East Texas. [right] Austin, the newly minted capital, is relatively isolated on Texas’ western frontier. Enchanted Rock, a popular tourist destination today, is shown to the west of Austin.

Additional details are noted on the map. In Robertson County, “Caddo villages burned by Gen. Rusk in Jany, 1839,”[2] are referenced, as well as a “Great body of excellent land.” In the northwest portion of the map, “Herds of Buffaloes” roam over “Level Prairies.” In San Patricio County, there is a note that “Of this section of country very little is known.” It is “inferred that it is mostly a dry elevated prairie.”

Burned Caddo villages and a great body of excellent land are noted in Robertson County, far from the settlements in East and South Texas.

An inset on the lower-right portion of the sheet details the vast amount of Mexican territory from “the Rio Grande and the Country west to the Pacific,” including Upper California, Lower California, Sonora & Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Santa Fe, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas. Numerous towns, forts, and rivers are identified. A route stretches northwest from San Antonio into the Rocky Mountains, then breaks eastward with the designation “Traders route to St. Louis.”

The inset map includes a view of Mexican territory stretching west from the Rio Grande to the Pacific Ocean.

The map was signed by James Webb, Secretary of State; John Woodward, Consul General of Texas; Francis Moore Jr., Editor of the Telegraph Newspaper from Houston; and John P. Borden, the first Commissioner of the General Land Office. All the signatories testified that this map was made from the best and most recent sources, and compiled from the records of the General Land Office, the seal of which was affixed near the signatures.[3] This map replaced Austin’s as being the most accurate of the Republic.

Signatures and the attachment of the GLO seal attest to the accuracy of Hunt and Randel’s map.

This map is part of the Frank and Carol Holcomb Digital Map Collection.

Can’t make it to Houston? You can view the majority of the maps in this exhibit in high definition on the GLO’s website where you can also purchase reproductions and support the Save Texas History Program.

[1] Thomas W. Streeter, Bibliography of Texas 1795–1845, Part III., United States and European Imprints Relating to Texas, Volume II, 1838–1845, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960, pp. 312–313.

[2] A reference to General Thomas J. Rusk and the actions of his troops during the Cherokee War, Handbook of Texas Online, Priscilla Myers Benham, “Rusk, Thomas Jefferson,” accessed July 20, 2017, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fru16.

[3] As best the author can tell, the Hunt and Randel Texas map was the first Texas map that used any version of the phrase “compiled using the resources of the Texas General Land Office” as a claim to its accuracy.