Antique Oklahoma Map Reproductions

Map Showing the Lands assigned to Emigrant Indians West of Arkansas & Missouri , Topographical Bureau, Washington D.C., 1836.

A reproduction of a hand colored engraved map. Original Size: 18-1/2 inches X 17-3/4 inches; Scale: 1 inch = approximately 40 miles.

Removed from Colonel Henry Dodge's Journal of the March of a Detachment of Dragoons, Under the Command of Colonel Henry Dodge, During the Summer of 1835. In the summer of 1835, Colonel Henry Dodge set out with a group of 77 mounted men from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, marching northwest across the plains, up the valley of the Missouri river, to the Rocky Mountains and back to Leavenworth, to hold councils with the Indian tribes and to look after the interests of the United States on what was then the Mexican border. On June 9, the expedition reached a point a few miles from the mouth of the Platte river in today's Nebraska. On June 11th, 1835, a council was held with the Otoe Indian tribe and their chief CHON MAN I CASE, also known as SHAU MONE KUSSE, or "Ietan", as the area white settlers knew him. On the 17th , the party met with the Omaha Indians and their chief "Big Elk", or ONG PA TON GA. Both of these Native Americans are thoroughly documented by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall in their famous History of the Indian Tribes of North America.

The expedition continued up the Platte River to the Pawnee Indian villages, and held a council there on the 23rd of June, 1835. Near the Platte River falls, immense herds of buffalo were documented and another Indian council was held with the Arickaree tribe. Following the south fork of the Platte River, the expedition documented that they could see the Rocky Mountains, including Pikes Peak, on July 15, 1835. They turned to the southeast and reached the divide between the Platte River and the Arkansas river on July 26th. They reached Bent's fort on August 6th by using Boiling Springs creek and the Arkansas River, and held councils with the Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Blackfoot Indian tribes.

The expedition left Bent's fort on Aug. 12, 1835, and continued to follow the Arkansas River valley holding councils with the Comanches, Kiowas and others, and on the 23rd of August found the junction of the Santa Fe trail and the Arkansas, and turned toward home. In the end. the trip was estimated at 1635 miles in just less than three months. As part of the documentation of the trek, Colonel Dodge asked Lt. Gaines P. Kingsbury to prepare his "Journal of the March of a Detachment of Dragoons, Under the Command of Colonel Henry Dodge, During the Summer of 1835". It was submitted to the U.S. government and now can be found in the American State Papers under Class V. Military Affairs. Volume VI. 24th Congress, 1st Session, H. Doc., 138. This 37 page document was accompanied by two maps. This example of one of these maps shows more than 20 various sized allotments of what was then thought to be worthless land in the future states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. The map also displays statistical tables listing tribe populations and their quantity of allocated land.

The final version of the map was prepared by Lt. Washington Hood at the Topographical Bureau in February, 1836, in Washington D.C. The Senate Journal documents that on February 16, 1836, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution: "Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to send to the Senate the official report of the expedition of the United States dragoons, under the command of Colonel Dodge, during last summer, to the Rocky mountains, with the journal and map accompanying said journals; making such change in the map as will show the position of the different Indian tribes situated on the frontiers of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and the northwest frontier."

Nearly one month later, on March 14, 1836, the House Journal documents another resolution: "Resolved, That ten thousand copies of the report of the Secretary of War of the journal of the expedition of the dragoons under the command of Colonel Henry Dodge, to the Rocky mountains, during the summer of 1835, be printed for the use of the members of this House." This map issued as part of this reprint of Colonel Dodge' Journal. Wheat calls it "an important historical map". Not many of these reports survived government housekeeping which makes this map a rare piece of early Americana.

Oklahoma, The New State M.K. & T. Land Bureau, St. Louis, 1907.

A reproduction of a two color chromolithograph. Original Size: 17.1 inches X 23.6 inches; Scale: 1 inch = approximately 20 miles.
There were several rail roads competing for a route to the Indian Territory in 1868. Their promoters were ambitious to extend their lines to the Gulf, to Mexico, or to the Pacific. Colonel Robert Smith Stevens and Judge Levi Parsons, New York were promoters of the road that later became the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas, or the "Katy" Railroad. Parsons had grand dreams of a vast empire for the Katy, especially if he could get generous land grants by beating James F. Joy, promoter of the Border Tier Road, also called the "Joy Road", to the Indian Territory.

The M.K. & T. Railway started track bed construction in 1868, diagonally across Kansas from northwest to southeast. Beginning in Junction City, Kansas, and continuing through self named Parsons, Kansas, the plan was to build all the way to Chetopa, Kansas, just north of the Indian Territory. By June 6, 1870, the M. K. and T. Railway won the construction race to the Indian Territory border and earned the sole right to build south through the lands of the Five Civilized Nations to the Red River border and Texas.

By October 1871, the M.K. & T. main rail line reached The Three Forks near Fort Gibson Indian Territory, and 14 months later, on December 25, 1872, the railway was the first to enter Texas from the north by spanning the Red River and entering Denison, Texas. Here the M.K. & T. linked with the Houston and Texas Central Railway to give America a new major entry point for immigration.

By 1915, the M.K. and T. had overbuilt its rail lines into Oklahoma, reaching Osage, Oklahoma City, Shawnee, and Ada. The company went into bankruptcy and receivership. This map is one of the last produced for the company. It displays Oklahoma county sections and locations of "Asphalt Beds", "Coal Fields", and the "Oil and Gas" fields around Tulsa. There are many areas with descriptions of agricultural or ranching successes such as "cotton", "wheat", "corn", "oats", "stock", and other notes. Altitudes and rainfall are also noted.

This map is a superb snapshot of the early State of Oklahoma.

Gray's Atlas Map of Indian Territory Gray, O.W. , Philadelphia, 1873.

A reproduction of a hand colored stone lithograph. Original size: 11.6 inches X 14.5 inches.

This map of Indian Territory is colored by Indian tribe reservation area. It is one of the earliest separate maps of Indian Territory to appear in a commercial atlas. It displays villages, forts, rivers, and a number of notes regarding the dates various regions were ceded to the United States by the respective tribes. The map also shows various academies, agency, and store locations. A Prairie Dog town is displayed in the western part of the territory. The MK&T Railway is shown to have completed its track bed past Ft. Gibson to Muskogee. Areas of the Indian Territory in the western part of the state show recent U.S. Government purchases from the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole, and Creek Indian tribes.