From the northern boundary of California to the Columbia River : from explorations and surveys
Map No. 2 of the Pacific Railroad Surveys: the routes Lieutenants Robert S. Williamson and Henry L. Abbot explored in 1855 from the northern boundary of California to the Columbia, along the Willamette valley and east of the Cascades by the Deschutes. East of Mount Hood it marks an “Indian Trail” across Tygh (“Tysch”) Prairie, on the way south from the Columbia at the Dalles, and it carries Native names along the way — Wil-la-wit Spring, Nu-ah-hum Peak — with the Klamath lakes and the Rogue, Umpqua and Coquille valleys.
Source
| Map | From the northern boundary of California to the Columbia River : from explorations and surveys |
|---|---|
| Author | Lieut. R. S. Williamson and Lieut. H. L. Abbot, U.S. Topographical Engineers; drawn by John Young, 1859 |
| Archive | Library of Congress |
| Rights | Public domain. Published 1859 — before 1931, so public domain in the United States. Evidence |
| Accuracy | About 18 km (RMS 3.6 km at 32 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 smoothing thin-plate spline through 32 points — crossings of the sheet’s half-degree graticule read where its lines are clear, and nine places drawn on it (Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams, Astoria, Fort Vancouver, Milwaukie, Oregon City, Corvallis, Gardiner, Cape Blanco). This copy was cut into 16 sections and mounted on cloth; the gaps between sections are left transparent. See the methodology. |
| Version | 1.0.0, updated 2026-10-06 |
| Covers | Oregon, Washington, California |
Downloads
- Google Earth overlay (KMZ) — free (6.7 MB)
- GeoTIFF, tinted trails, EPSG:4326 (6000 × 4911; QGIS, ArcGIS) — free (18.3 MB)
- Print sheet over today’s map (3600 × 2200 PNG) — free (2.4 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 (2026-10-06): First release: placed by hand at 32 places. From the Native Routes sources register; Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division (98688434).
Credits
- From the Native Routes sources register; Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division (98688434)
- Georeferencing: Native Routes
- Scan: Library of Congress
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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