Book Description
In 1849, the Corps of Topographical Engineers commissioned Lieutenant James H. Simpson to undertake the first survey of Navaho country in present-day New Mexico. Accompanying Simpson was a military force commanded by Colonel John M. Washington, sent to negotiate peace with the Navaho. A keen observer, Simpson kept a journal that provided valuable information on the party's interactions with Indians and also about the land's features, including important pueblo ruins at Chaco Canyon and Canyon de Chelly. His careful observations informed subsequent military expeditions, emigrant trains, the selection of Indian reservations, and the charting of a transcontinental railroad. Editor Frank McNitt discusses the expedition's lasting importance to the development of the West, and his research is enriched by illustrations and maps by artists Richard and Edward Kern. Military historian Durwood Ball contributes a new foreword.


About the Author
James H. Simpson, a first lieutenant during the 1849 survey, was promoted to a brigadier general and named chief engineer of the Interior Department. Frank McNitt was a leading authority on southwestern history and the author of The Indian Traders (OU Press).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In 1849, the Corps of Topographical Engineers commissioned Lieutenant James H. Simpson to undertake the first survey of what he termed Navaho country in present-day New Mexico. Accompanying Simpson was a military force under the command of Colonel John M. Washington, sent to negotiate peace with the Navaho Indians.

Simpson, who had never before been west of the Missouri, was a keen observer, and his journal provides a wealth of information about the physical features of the land he surveyed and explored - including unusual geological formations and archeologically important pueblo ruins at Chaco Canyon and Canyon de Chelly. He also described the party's interactions with the Indians he encountered. His careful observations supplied information vital to subsequent military expeditions, emigrant trains, selection of Indian reservations, and charting the route of a transcontinental railroad.