It had been a daring feat of exploration, succeeding where the mountain men had all failed, and by means of his map of the western portion of the lake, Stansbury had painted at least one more bold stroke into the unfinished portrait of the national landscape. - William Goetzmann This is Stansbury's seminal 1852 map of the Great Salt Lake region in Utah. It is considered to be the first accurate survey of the Great Basin as well as a cornerstone achievement in the mapping of the American West. The first westerner to visit the Great Basin was most likely Silvestre Vélez de Escalante in the 1776, however, Escalante, who visited Utah Lake to the south, never truly laid eyes on Great Salt Lake. That honor would fall to unnamed trappers and mountain men traveling the region in search of furs and other tradable commodities. Unfortunately, few of these men were literate and did not record their discoveries. The first scientific expedition to this area was headed up by Fremont in 1843. In the process of creating a marine survey of the Lake, the Stansbury team was also the first to identify and chart many of Great Salt Lake's Islands ,as might be deduced form their names: Stansbury Island, Carrington Island, Gunnison Island, and Fremont Island. Wheat, in his classic study of American exploration, Mapping the Transmississippi West , devotes considerable attention to this important map, Obviously a major production...an illuminating map of Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake, their respective valleys, and a portion of 'Youab' (Juab) Valley to the south.... This map permanently established the cartography and many place names of northwestern Utah.... One of its most attractive features is that it gives the Indian as well as the Mormon names of the various creeks draining from the mountains.
