H. Custer - From the Pima Villages to Fort Fillmore Map

28.75" x 41.75" framed. This map shows the route of a survey from the Pima Villages on the Rio Gila to Mesilia on the Rio Bravo-Del Norte (El Paso). This was published by the War Department in 1854-1855, Washington, DC. It is the Scrace 1855 octavo edition of Pacific Railroad Surveys with a view to determine the practicability of a railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean through Arizona and New Mexico territories. The survey was made by Lt. Jonathan G. Parke, Corps of Engineers, under orders from Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War. It is Custer's seminal map of Arizona and New Mexico, and is historically important. The desire for a railroad that would link the Southern United States with the Pacific Ocean was the reason for the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. Jefferson Davis, then as secretary of war and as Southerner, had long angled for this land along the US/Mexican Border since it contained enough property to allow for the railroad construction. This map represents the first step of that phase of the United States' growth West. The owner has authorized us to lower the price from $6,700 to $5,600.