County Map of Texas.

Description

This is Samuel Augustus Mitchell’s 1867 map of Texas with part of western New Mexico and a large inset of Galveston Bay. It is a highly detailed map, which employs an attractive color-coding system to delineate counties and territories. Texas, of course, has more counties than any other state, a deliberate design by early state planners in order to allow for hyper-localized governance.

The map was printed before the Texas Constitution of 1876, and much of West Texas has yet to be incorporated into the county system; thus we see Young Territory and Bexar Territory, along with early configurations of El Paso and Presidio Counties.

Early railroad lines are also depicted.