This fine set of prints is from surveys operated under a general plan issued by the Army Corps of Engineers and led by First Lieutenant George M. Wheeler. Ten expeditions took place between 1869 and 1879. Wheeler's main objective was to survey the territory south of the Central Pacific Railroad to obtain accurate topographical knowledge and prepare maps of the region. He was also charged with selecting sites for future military forts, recommending routes and resources for making rail and wagon roads, and the study of the mineral resources, climate, geology, vegetation, water sources, and agricultural potential. This huge undertaking surveyed 1,443,360 square miles in the states of today's New Mexico, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Texas. The survey produced 164 topographic maps and published forty-one reports. These chromolithographic and tinted lithographs are from the 1871, 72 or 73 surveys which worked in Eastern California, northwestern and central Arizona, southern and southwestern Nevada, and southern Utah.

1) Mouth of the Grand Canon of the Colorado River; 2) Dripping Pool Kanab Canon Near the Colorado, 1872; 3) A Cactus Grove, Arizona (Species - Cereus Giganteus); 4) Grand Canon, Colorado River; 5) Crossing of the Colorado River Near Mouth of Paria Creek (Eastern Edge of the Grand Canon in the Distance) 1873; 6) Black Canon, Colorado River, From Camp 8, Looking Above; 7) Sandstone Walls in Canon de Chelle, N.M. (Camp Beauty 1873) - actually Canyon de Chelly, AZ; 8) Grand Canon of the Colorado, Near Paria Creek, Looking East, 1872; 9) Black Canon of the Colorado River, from Mirror Bar; 10) Grand Canon of the Colorado River, Near Mouth of the Kanab Wash, Looking East, 1872; 11) View Looking South into the Grand Canon of the Colorado, from Sheavwitz Crossing, 1872; 12) Marble Canon, Colorado River; and 13) A Canon within a Canon, in basin of the Colorado River.

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Condition: A

All with fine coloring and full margins. All vary between fine to very good.