© 2005 by Fort Lewis College Foundation, Center of Southwest Studies account  (updated 2008)

Links to contents

Preface	Administrative info	Introduction/  Scope and contents	Digital images	Series descriptions
Item list	Related map collections	Center of Southwest Studies collection inventories		Center of Southwest Studies

Introduction/ Scope and contents

Southwest maps
Years this material was created: 1852-2000s (bulk 1940-1990s)
Quantity: hundreds of maps, in 23 map case drawers

This is a diversified collection of maps, of miscellaneous origin, regarding the Four Corners region (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah) and surrounding area of the Southwestern United States.  Topics include history, Indian settlements, geology, transportation, etc.  The maps are arranged by these and other broad topics.  The collection includes a Southwestern Colorado expedition map, circa 1874-75. 

Administrative information
Arrangement note:
The maps are arranged topically/geographically by broad categories -- beginning with maps of Durango and moving concentrically outward geographically from Durango into La Plata County, southwest Colorado, Colorado, the Four Corners, and the Southwest.

Acquisition information:  
This is what is commonly known as an artificial collection -- comprised of acquisitions (primarily by gift) from various sources.  Accession numbers include 1984:11001, 1988:06007, 1990:09005, 1992:0101, 1992:1207, 1993:1105 and many others.

Processing information: 
Center of Southwest Studies student workers/Fort Lewis College students Stephanie Zuni and Brad Stapleton  assisted with the arrangement of these maps in the years 2004-2005 under the supervision (and with the assistance) of archivist Todd Ellison.  This work included humidifying rolled maps to relax and flatten them, and placing everything in archival-quality enclosures.  Archival volunteer Bruce Howard continued the organization in 2007 and entered the data into the Center's Microsoft Access SWMaps.mdb database, which is the source for detailed management of this collection.  This inventory was prepared by J. Todd Ellison, last revised February 20, 2008.

The items in this collection are in a single series of maps, organized first geographically, followed by maps that lend themselves better to a topical grouping. Thus, the overall organization of these maps is by geographic name, moving from the most local maps (of the city of Durango) to the broadest (United States).  Subject-based maps follow the geographically-arranged maps.

Links to sections of this list:

Map categories:

Selected digital images/ itemized description of maps (this is a work in progress; we add newly digitized Southwest maps to this page, so visit this site again in the future to see more):

Item C001200303006: Dominguez-Escalante expedition of 1776, copy of map drawn in 1778.  Labeled (near upper right of map) in old Spanish as follows: geographic map of the land discovered/ rediscovered in the areas northwest and west of New Mexico, made by Don Bernardo de Mieray Pachecoa, who came in to make his discoveries accompanied by R.T's P.Ps …Francisco Atanasio Domingues and Fr. Silbestre Veles… Al Senor Theodoro de la C…, of the Teutonic Order, commander and general in chief of the … in the year 1778. The legend (in a second dark circle, left of center, shows villas (houses); villages of Indians; ranches and small communities from Spain; groups of Spanish people who were ruined by their enemies; housing of Indians who were friendly to the Spanish; a sign for where we are going, making our daily travels; and watercourses. Below the name for the Rio de las Animas (Animas River) the text mentions the ruins of the large community of the ancient Indians.

Item C0012007114: Map of wagon routes in Utah Territory, explored and opened by Capt. J. H. Simpson, assisted by Lieuts. J. L. K. Smith and H. S. Putnam, and Mr. Henry Engelmann in 1858-59 by authority of Hon. John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, and under instructions from Bvt. Brig. Gen. A. S. Johnston, United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. Drawn by J. P. Mechlin. Scale: 1: 1,000,000. Includes a table of geographical positions established by Capt. Simpson. The Southeast corner of Utah is blank on the map and is simply described as unexplored. This map was a fold-out in the book, Report of explorations across the great basin of the territory of Utah for a direct wagon-route from Camp Floyd to Genoa, in Carson Valley, in 1859, by Captain J. H. Simpson, Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1876.

Item C001.01: Denver & Rio Grande Railroad right of way and track map of Durango, Colorado, 1937/ by Arthur Ridgway, for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, Fourth Division (Denver, Colo.)  Denver & Rio Grande Railroad map number Colo. V-17-A/19: Station 3541+84 to Station 3670+03.  This map is itself one section of a seventy-one-foot long by 24-inch high contiguous map of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad track and right of way all the way between the Durango railroad station and the Silverton railroad station (Accession x2005:02003.004).  Due to the size of the entire map, only this first map portion, of Station 3541+84 to Station 3670+03 (i.e., of Durango) has been (and can be) digitized. 

(See also the Center of Southwest Studies' collections of maps produced by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad [Collection C 006], et al.)

Item 2007:103.002 in the Nina Heald Webber Southwest Colorado collection: American Smelting and Refining Co. smelter map, showing adjacent areas in the city of Durango, including barns, warehouses, sheds, a slaughter house, a rendering house, mills, stock yards, the railroad yards, and a pump house, etc., east/across the Animas River from the smelter and other structures including coke ovens, a dwelling, a barn, scales, and a power house on the same side of the river as the smelter. Denver and Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) tracks are shown in red; Rio Grande Southern (RGS) tracks to Ridgway are shown in green. Undated. Includes a mention of "AFE 2898 - 1952 Retire Tracks." Scale: 1" = 100'.  Dimensions: 25" x 33.8".

Item C0012005030121:
Lines of communication between Conejos and Pagosa Springs, Colorado, January 1878
 by the Office of Chief Engineer, Department of Missouri, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

(to view, click on picture on left)

Item B001QE1N471957:

Geologic map of the western San Juan Mountains, Colorado

by Vincent C. Kelley, 1957

(to view, click on picture on left)

Item B001QE75P9166: Physiography and quaternary geology of the San Juan Mountains, Colorado by Wallace W. Atwood and Kirtley F. Mather, 1932.  (to view, click on pictures below)
Plate 1: Geologic map of San Juan Mountains, Colorado, showing distribution of the late tertiary and quarternary formations
Plate 2:  Geologic map of San Juan Mountains, Colorado, showing the relation of the San Juan Peneplain and the deposits on it to the present topography
Plate 3: Geologic map of San Juan Mountains, Colorado, as that region appeared in Late Peistocene time with the glaciers of the Wisconsin Stage restored to their maximum dimensions

Item list of maps:
Note: this list is limited to 377 of the geographically-arranged maps; the subject-arranged maps are not yet described at the item level.