Key Map Showing Status of Map Work in Eighth Corps Area

[Fort McNair, D.C.: Engineer Reproduction Plant, 1933. About very good.. Blue line map, 31.5 x 35 inches. Folded. Even, moderate tanning to right half of map. Minor loss at lower right corner where previously posted, slightly affecting map area. Minor wear at edges and along folds. A few contemporary ink manuscript annotations. A fascinating and scarce overview map, that delineates the status of surveying map work by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other government survey bodies in the southwestern United States, especially Texas, by the early 1930s. The map depicts the Eighth Corps Area, which covered Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, southeastern Utah, Colorado, and Oklahoma, and is platted according to the Harriman Geographic Index System. Despite the sizable region covered, the map provides a significant amount of detail concerning the areas where surveying work was complete, the places where it was underway, the extent of work undertaken, dates of the surveys, responsible agencies, and more. The information provided, and indeed the surveying itself, is most detailed for Texas, where almost the entire state, except the Panhandle and a portion of West Texas, has been surveyed or is in the process of being surveyed, likely a result of the oil boom. The areas of Central and South Texas are also printed with yellow and blue shading, although there is no indication of the meaning of this demarcation. A second region with a wealth of information available are the borderlands from Big Bend to Yuma. A detailed and important cartographic report on the status of land surveys in the American Southwest at the time of the Depression. OCLC locates one copy, at the University of Arizona; another copy is likely in the records of the Army Corps of Engineers at the National Archives.