Thomas C. Danisi and W. Raymond Wood

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Thomas C. Danisi and W. Raymond Wood | Lewis and Clark's Route Map: James MacKay's Map of the Missouri River | The Western Historical Quarterly, 35.1 | The History Cooperative

Lewis and Clark's Route Map: James MacKay's Map of the Missouri River

New evidence reveals that the author of the 1797 Indian Office Map was James MacKay, leader of the third Missouri Company expedition up the Missouri River. It probably was transmitted to Lewis and Clark when MacKay accepted a covert invitation by Private Joseph Field to visit Camp Dubois in 1804.

Nueva evidencia revela que el autor del Mapa de la Officina de los Indios (Indian Office Map) de 1797 fue James McKay, lider de la tercera expedicion de la Comañia de Missouri (Missouri Company) por el Río de Missouri. Este mapa fue probablemente transmitido a Lewis y Clark cuando McKay aceptóuna invitación secreta para visitar el Campamento Dubois hecha por el Soldado (Private) Joseph Field en 1804.

MAPS, NO LESS THAN NARRATIVES, are among our most basic documents, and when they are examined carefully they shed great light on the time line of history and reveal the growth of knowledge as well as the progress of human endeavors. A history without maps is inconceivable.

Thus, a crucial aspect in the planning of the single most important exploration in American history, that of Thomas Jefferson's Corps of Discovery, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was to obtain reliable maps to chart their route.

How did Lewis and Clark do this?

The answer to the captains' success in finding a viable map of the Upper Missouri River is to be found in the story of cartographer James MacKay, a Scotsman who, based on his extensive trading with the Indians in Canada, and on his proficiency in map-making and experience in surveying, had been hired to lead the Spanish expedition up to the Missouri in Louisiana territory.

A superficial look at history would indicate that MacKay was only one small player in the international intrigue of land and economic disputes in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. It would suggest that the handwriting on the map, in both French and English, proved that John Evans (MacKay's field assistant) and Nicolas De Finiels (a Frenchman who assisted MacKay and others in various cartographic efforts) contributed to the actual drawing of the map—which is now known as the Indian Office Map.

But, a cursory look at history, as always, can be misleading. It is true that it was John Evans who, on that 1795 expedition, traveled the Upper Missouri River to the Mandans, while MacKay remained in Fort Charles—795 miles above St. Louis—and it is logical to think, since it was Evans who explored the Upper Missouri, that he would have been the one to draw the map. Also, there did exist at the time an international aspect of cooperation: MacKay, Evans, Antoine Soulard (surveyor general of Upper Louisiana) and De Finiels all assisted one another on cartographic efforts. It is perhaps because of this, combined with Evans's explorations on the Upper Missouri that historians have denied MacKay's role as the primary draftsman of the Missouri River map. The truth is to be found in detailed detective work.

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