Grand Reconnaissance recounts the largely untold story of the Pacific Railroad Surveys (PRRS) of 1853–1854 that ended the era of continental reconnaissance begun by Lewis and Clark 50 years earlier.
Led by the Army corps of Topographical Engineers, the topogs, hundreds of soldiers, along with surveyors, scientists, engineers, naturalists, artists, and guides fanned out across the vast territory of the trans-Mississippi in the largest peacetime expeditionary force the U.S. had deployed “to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.”
The expeditions had been launched by a lame duck 32nd Congress, obsessed with “the railroad question,” but unable to cut through the Gordian knot of sectional rivalries, legislators’ competing personal and financial interests, and insurmountable political hurdles that had blocked agreement on any specific route. The politicians in Congress instead funded a study, adding $150,000 to the Army appropriations bill in the vain hope that science and a surveyor’s transit could cut through the political impasse.
Although they failed in their primary mission, the topogs accomplished much. They filled in the map of the West, giving the country a depiction, for the first time, of the continent’s major geographic features in proper relation to one another. It was as if America held up a mirror in which it could finally see itself accurately portrayed from coast to coast. And this mirror offered more than a map—it reflected and galvanized Americans’ belief in both the promise and the possibility of a nation that could dare to span a continent.
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Grand Reconnaissance is not a retelling of the first transcontinental railroad, but is an examination of what necessarily came before. This site will contain excerpts from the book as well as maps, illustrations, and additional content not just about the Pacific Railroad Surveys, but about the times, the people on the expeditions and the significant milestones. As I continue to develop both the book ad this site, content will be added and refreshed. So come back! This site contains excerpts from the book as well as maps, illustrations, and additional content not just about the Pacific Railroad Surveys, but about the times, the people on the expeditions and the significant milestones. It also asks, and attempts to answer, two questions. What did they accomplish? and Why have the reports of these expeditions been largely forgotten in the popular historical memory and “consigned to dust and obscurity”? As I continue to develop both the book ad this site, content will be added and refreshed. So come back!
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