Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah, Including a Reconnaissance of a New Route Through the Rocky Mountains (Senate. Special Session, March, 1851. Executive No. 3)

Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Grambo & Co, 1852. First edition. Leather bound. 487pp. Octavo [23 cm] Brown leather with red and black gilt stamped title labels on the backstrip (spine labels state: "Senate Documents Spec'l 32d Cong. Vol. 2, 1851). Borders decoratively tooled in black on the covers. Very good. The extremities are mildly rubbed. The front endsheet is cracked along the hinge, however the book is very sturdy. Internally clean, with only very occasional light foxing. This copy was bound without the listed illustrations, with the exception of the frontispiece. With the reptiles, insects, and plants plates (the reptile and insect plates are present in duplicate). Lacking the 4 paleontology plates. The two maps are bound in at the rear. The Map of the Great Salt Lake has a 5" closed tear that has been backed with tape, and the Map of the Reconnoissance of the Country between the Valley of the Great Salt Lake and the Missouri River, at Fort Leavenworth, is foxed. This is one of the great US Government exploration reports of the American West, and a must for any serious collector of exploration or Western Americana. "Stansbury's Report along with Gunnison's book, The Mormons, provided the outside world with an objective look at the Mormons of Utah as well as with a scientific appraisal of the resources and fauna and flora of this section of the Great Basin." - Brigham D. Madsen. Flake/Draper 8359. Wagner/Camp 219:2.