Welcome to the Beehive Archive your weekly bite-sized look at some of the most pivotal and peculiar events in Utah history. With all of the history and none of the dust, the Beehive Archive is a fun way to catch up on Utah’s past. Beehive Archive is a production of Utah Humanities, […]
Welcome to the Beehive Archive your weekly bite-sized look at some of the most pivotal and peculiar events in Utah history. With all of the history and none of the dust, the Beehive Archive is a fun way to catch up on Utah’s past. Beehive Archive is a production of Utah Humanities, provided to local papers as a […]
Editor’s Note: This article is reproduced from The Beehive Archive, an ongoing series of historic essays collected by Utah Humanities. Today’s installment was prepared by the Hyrum Museum.
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Maps shape how we see our world. Perhaps no one knew this as well as John Wesley Powell, a late-19th Century scientist who was one of the first to survey the American West. Powell’s famous expeditions through America’s canyons and rivers helped create the U.S. Geological Survey in 1879. As director, he created a nationwide topographic mapping project that is still used by federal agencies today. Despite his clear expertise about the land, Powell’s greatest proposal for the American West was rejected.
The 1862 Homestead Act provided 160 acres of land to Americans wanting to settle the frontier, but land west of the 100th Meridian is significantly more arid than in the East. Powell knew there would be problems with access to irrigable land. He proposed that the West be settled within natural watershed boundaries to maximize the use of rainfall as it collected in mountains and ran downstream. Central to his vision was his hydrographic map where the square borders of Utah