Whither the Waters: Mapping the Great Basin from Bernardo de Miera to John C. Frmont

Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco (1713� "1785) is remembered today not only as colonial New Mexico� (TM)s preeminent religious artist, but also as the cartographer who drew some of the most important early maps of the American West. His � oePlano Geographico� � of the Colorado Plateau and Great Basin, revised by his hand in 1778, influenced other mapmakers for almost a century. This book places the man and the map in historical context, reminding readers of the enduring significance of Miera y Pacheco. Later Spanish cartographers, as well as Baron Alexander von Humboldt, Captain Zebulon Montgomery Pike, and Henry Schenck Tanner, projected or expanded upon the Santa Fe cartographer� (TM)s imagery. By so doing, they perpetuated Miera y Pacheco� (TM)s most notable hydrographic misinterpretations. Not until almost seventy years after Miera did John Charles Fr�(c)mont take the field and see for himself whither the waters ran and whither they didn� (TM)t.