Asher & Adams’ Nebraska

Detailed map of Nebraska published shortly after statehood in 1867.

This fascinating map of Nebraska highlights the development of the state in decade after the Civil War. Surveyed counties and townships follow the readily available transportation routes – railroads and rivers – that facilitated the emigration of thousands of settlers in the second half of the 19th century.

The Union Pacific, bisecting the center of the page, was one of the primary mechanisms for this population increase. The company was provided huge land grants by the federal government to help pay for the route (the first Transcontinental Railroad), and it, in turn, sold the acreage cheaply to settlers who (it was hoped) would ship their agricultural output via the UP to markets further east.

The map was published in Washington, D.C. by Asher & Adams in 1874.