EARLY MANUSCRIPT SURVEY MAP OF LANDS AT NEW FORT JEFFERSON, MOUTH OF THE OHIO RIVER

Map of Lands at and Near Fort Jefferson Mouth of the Ohio River. Ink and watercolor map on laid paper. [Ohio], ca. 1780-1810. Visible ## x ## in., framed to ## x ## in. 

A well-executed and visually appealing ink with watercolor hand-drawn map depicting a surveyed tract along the Ohio River at the confluence with the Mississippi. 

The map depicts the short-lived settlement and military outpost of Fort Jefferson, established in 1780 near present-day Wickliffe, Kentucky, during the early years of American westward expansion. Its refined calligraphic cartouche, restrained palette, and measured draughtsmanship reflect the work of a trained surveyor operating in the trans-Appalachian frontier at a moment when the Ohio Valley was transitioning from contested borderland to organized American territory.

The river is rendered in sinuous profile with pale blue washes delineating channels and sandbars, the surveyed lots carefully gridded and numerically inscribed, while branching waterways and notations identify surrounding creeks and natural features. The lower margin bears a scale noting acreage, suggesting its function as a formal land division or speculative plat.

Fort Jefferson was established during the western campaigns of the American Revolution. Constructed under the authority of George Rogers Clark, the post was intended to secure American claims to the Illinois Country and to counter British-aligned Native forces operating along the Mississippi Valley. Strategically positioned at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, it served both as a military outpost and a symbolic assertion of sovereignty in a region still contested by Native nations, British agents, and American settlers. The settlement struggled from the outset, however, plagued by flooding, disease, supply shortages, and repeated attacks, and was largely abandoned by 1781. Despite its brief existence, Fort Jefferson occupies an important place in the early history of the trans-Appalachian West, representing one of the first formal American attempts to project federal authority into the lower Ohio Valley, a region that would soon become central to land speculation, migration, and the rapid expansion of the early republic.

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