"Annotated 1846 S. Augustus Mitchell Map
"I want you to bring me one half dozen of Mitchell's new map of Texas, Oregon & California and the regions adjoining, or his accompaniment for the same for 1846, or rather the latest edition and best map of all the Indian countries in North America; the pocket maps are the best for our use.  If there is anything later or better than Mitchell's, I want the best." — Brigham Young, 18 February 1847 letter from Winter Quarters, Indian Territory to Joseph A. Stratton, recently released President of the St. Louis, Missouri Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("The Mormons") —

Mitchellʹs best selling 1846 "pocket" map folded inward twice each from the top and bottom, and then accordion folded eight times to fit into a small handy pocket-sized green leather booklet labeled Texas, Oregon and California. — This is a special lithographic copy of an original map residing in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. This particular map includes 190 unique and meticulously handwritten pencil and ink post-publication annotations chronicling numerous western news events during the three year period from 1846 through 1848, including Captain John C. Frémont's second and third western expeditions exploring the Great Basin, his conquest of Upper California, the southwestern desert, the Santa Fe Trail, pre-Mexican War roads and cities in Northeastern Mexico, the eastern Oregon Trail, and landmarks in Texas and New Mexico.  This is both the oldest known map placing Mormons in Utah AND the oldest known map placing gold in California! — This map was first thought to be one of the original six maps brought west in 1847 by early Mormon leader Brigham Young or his pioneer scribes Thomas Bullock and William Clayton.  Later, it was thought to be the work of a heroic western explorer such as Josiah Gregg, Lt. William H. Emory, Captain Frémont, or his cartographer Charles Preuss.  However, three years of painstaking deciphering, handwriting analysis, consultation with numerous experts, and historical research of the map annotations, drawings of Sam Houston, a Texas chapel, and the Alamo on the inside of the back flyleaf of the printed "Accompaniment" to the map, and an annotated May 1848 newspaper clipping from the frontier Houston, Texas Democratic Telegraph & Texas Register glued to the outside of the back flyleaf affirm that the 190 annotations added to this map between 1846 and 1848 are the personal notes of the uniquely qualified and seasoned editor-publisher of the newspaper (and three-time mayor of Houston, Texas), Francis Moore, Jr. (1805-1864)." — Max W. Jamison

BYU Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah has granted special permission to the non-profit Douglas-Sarpy Counties Mormon Trails Association who in turn has given permission to HPRG to reproduce and offer for donations of $50 a color frameable lithographic copies of this map for the sole purpose of funding erection and beautification of historical Mormon Trails markers in the metropolitan Omaha, Nebraska area. No other photographic copies or facsimiles may be reproduced without express written consent from Photographic Archives, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. If interested contact us at pioneer-research-group@cox.net

The map below is  interactive. Pan and zoom into areas where the early Latter-day Saints lived, travelled, camped and settled.
Coming soon, clicking on a place name will open a wiki page with historical information about the place and those who walked there.
Visit Mormon Places home page here >

This map has been created by Dr. Brandon Plewe, BYU Geography Department.