This map shows Stephen Long's depiction of the "Great American Desert" and the rivers draining east from the Rocky Mountains. The map supported the claim that much of the great plains region was unsuitable for agriculture and white settlement and lent support to the creation of an Indian territory to which Indians would be removed. Under orders from John C. Calhoun, secretary of war, Long lead an expedition into the territory west of the Missouri River in 1819 and 1820 to acquire thorough and accurate information on the soil, geography, water courses, animals, vegetation, and minerals in the new territory. The map was published in an atlas (1822) accompanying Stephen H. Long's Account of An Expedition From Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Performed in the Years 1819 and 1820 (1823).
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Country drained by the Mississippi, western section