(Trail Letter) Sitgreaves Expedition. 1851 Folded cover postmarked "Jerseyville, Ill./Mar. 26" cds & matching "10" rate handstamp to "Dr. Saml. W. Woodhouse, U.S.A., Santa Fe, Texas", with "Texas" crossed out, manuscript endorsement "Attached to Capt. Sitgreaves exploring party - 'forward'" at bottom left, part of letter reads, I hope you have a pleasant company and all goes as pleasantly as possible. I really had forgotten the time a letter from here would take to reach El Paso or Santa Fe, to one of which I must direct this and not to San Antonio as first intended., Very Fine. Estimate  $750 - 1,000. After the conquest of New Mexico and California it was apparent that transportation and communications needed to be improved between these new territories and the rest of the United States east of the Mississippi. Geographical knowledge of most of this area, particularly northwestern New Mexico (now northern Arizona), was very limited and inaccurate. Some maps of the day showed a river system that might provide a possible navigable water corridor between New Mexico and the Gulf of California via the Zuni, Little Colorado, and Colorado Rivers.In 1851 the expedition of Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves set out to explore and map the southern portion of the Four Corners region of the Southwest. Sitgreaves, along with a small crew of topographers, naturalists, artists, and support personnel, and an escort of 30 infantrymen left the Zuni Pueblo in western New Mexico by pack train with instructions to explore and map the Zuni and Colorado Rivers and evaluate their navigability. Included in the expedition was Dr. Samuel W. Woodhouse, a thirty-year-old physician and naturalist. Although Sitgreaves's report of the expedition is only eighteen pages long, Woodhouse kept four detailed pocket diaries of the expedition's explorations from San Antonio to San Diego, including notes on the topography, plants, and animals they encountered. His diaries also provide the first detailed descriptions of the native peoples of the area. $0 (Image)