PSA: Stop trusting the big lake on the 1857 Mitchell map | Antique Map Puzzlers

Stella Roberts · 2026-10-01T17:45:02.720023+00:00

I spent 6 months trying to line up a trail from Fort Laramie to the Great Salt Lake on my 1857 Mitchell map before noticing the lake was drawn 200 miles too far east. A guy at the Denver map fair finally pointed out that Mitchell copied the whole western section from an 1849 Fremont survey that had a known longitude error. So if your emigrant road suddenly bends weird, check the source map's survey year first. Anyone else got a cheat sheet for spotting copied errors on these mid-1800s plates?

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PSA: Stop trusting the big lake on the 1857 Mitchell map | Antique Map Puzzlers - The Community Guide