DESCRIPTION: One lot of two complementary blueprint (cyanotype) maps of Arizona's gold-bearing districts, copyrighted 1948 by Jack Douglas of Dutch Flat, California. Rare. Not found in WorldCat.
The pair comprises his lode map, locating gold deposits within rock, and his placer map, identifying gold-bearing gravels and other loose deposits. White lettering and linework on blue grounds show towns, roads, county boundaries, and numbered prospecting localities linked to extensive directories below and beside each map.
The lode map identifies 84 numbered localities, including districts around Prescott, Jerome, Oatman, Tombstone, and the Bradshaw Mountains. Entries are grouped by county, with reported county gold yields and directions from nearby settlements. The placer map similarly provides a county-by-county guide, including workings around Wickenburg, Quartzsite, the Colorado River, and the streams of Yavapai County. Together the sheets document two distinct approaches to finding gold across Arizona.
Published as nos. 151 and 142 in Douglas's respective lode and placer map series, which covered the western states and British Columbia. Marginal advertisements offer companion maps for $1 each or three for $2 postpaid, promote his books "Gold in Placer" and "Gold in Lode," and encourage membership in the United Prospectors organization. Practical cautions address desert travel and water supplies; notices explain that past gold discoveries do not guarantee either further finds or permission to work the ground. Small mining-tool illustrations and a vignette of an old prospector complete the designs.
Published during the early postwar years, the map reflects an active community of independent miners and aspiring gold prospectors. Douglas had helped establish United Prospectors at Dutch Flat, Placer County, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills in 1947, and his inexpensive maps and instructional publications supported that audience. The sheet also coincides with the beginnings of the federally encouraged uranium rush, which brought renewed attention to mineral prospecting across the American West.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1948
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: N/A
CONDITION: Good.
Close cut to neatlines.
COLORING:
ENGRAVER:
SIZE:
" x
"
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 90
PRICE: $1100
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