Map of the Great Salt Lake and adjacent country in the Territory of Utah ; Surveyed 1849 and 1850 under the orders of Col. J.J. Abert ; Drawn by Lieut. Gunnison and Charles Preus.

Recounts the experiences of the government expedition sent to explore the Great Salt Lake region of Utah in 1849 to 1850. Stansbury includes information about the natural resources, the Indians, the settlers, the botany, the animals, and much meteorological and scientific data.

"In 1824 James Bridger, fur trader and guide, discovered the Great Salt Lake ... Between 1846 and 1848, the hegira of Mormons from Illinois made the basin of Salt Lake the focus of a new emigration movement, and public interest in the Utah country increased. In 1849, Captain Howard Stansbury of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, United States Army, was ordered to begin a systematic survey of the region. With a party of eighteen men, he began the work of mapping the area, a task which he did not complete until 1850. The results of that survey were embodied in a report published in 1852 as Senate Executive Document 3, 32nd Congress, Special Session of the Senate. Republished in London ... (1852)"--Foreword.

Elegantly assembles the environmental, social, cultural, political, and economic history of the Great Plains in the 19th century.