Map of Connecticut, circa 1625: Indian Trails, Villages, Sachemdoms (Mathias Spiess and Hayden L. Griswold for the Connecticut Society of…
Mathias Spiess’s map of Connecticut about 1625 for the Colonial Dames: the main and secondary trails — the Old Connecticut Path, the Shore Path, the Nipmuck, Mohegan and Berkshire paths — the villages and the sachemdoms of each nation.
Source
| Map | Map of Connecticut, circa 1625, Indian trails, villages, sachemdoms |
|---|---|
| Author | Mathias Spiess, 1930 |
| Archive | Leventhal Map & Education Center |
| Rights | Public domain. Published 1930 — before 1931, so public domain in the United States. Evidence |
| Accuracy | About 7 km (RMS 1.4 km at 18 control points). Placed by hand in a map-queue session and approved by a person. If something sits in the wrong place, members can fix it with Fix placement on the map. |
| Method | Placed by hand: a second-order polynomial fit to 18 places read from the scan and matched to their positions today. See the methodology. |
| Version | 1.0.0, updated 2026-09-30 |
| Covers | Connecticut |
Downloads
- Google Earth overlay (KMZ) — free (2.3 MB)
- GeoTIFF, tinted trails, EPSG:4326 (8000 × 4542; QGIS, ArcGIS) — free (9 MB)
- Print sheet over today’s map (3600 × 2200 PNG) — free (4.1 MB)
Project Homeland
This map’s trails are traced into Project Homeland, one map of the trail network melded from every traced source, where they are compared with the other maps’ lines. Members can trace more of them: Trace a trail on the map.
Changelog
- 1.0.0 (2026-09-30): First release: placed by hand at 18 places. From the Native Routes sources register; Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library.
Credits
- From the Native Routes sources register; Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library
- Georeferencing: Native Routes
- Scan: Leventhal Map & Education Center
Control points
The full list of control points with residuals is in control-points.geojson. Historic names indexed for search: names.geojson.
Something on this map sits in the wrong place? Members can show where with Fix placement on the map — confirmed fixes are tested against the map’s other control points each night and credited here. For anything else, report a problem.
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