"A book of great sweep and of sharp and shifting focus. It portrays the hugeness, harshness and magnificence of the land and the stamin and ardor of the men who took its measure."--New York Times

After the Civil War, four geological and geographical surveys, later called the Great Surveys, Undertook the massive task of finding out what lay west of the hundredth meridian in the vast American wilderness. Parties led by Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden, medical doctor turned geologist, Clarence King, aristocrat and intellectual, John Wesley Powell, conqueror of the Colorado River, and Lieutenant George M. Wheeler, determined military man and scientist, roamed over the wild country during the years 1867-79, observing, analyzing, mapping, and at the end of each season, returning to Washington to publish their results.

For the first time in book form, Richard A. Bartlett has recreated for the reader the hardships, both physical and financial, the discoveries, and the high adventures of the bold, headstrong, and often brilliant men of the Great Surveys as they climbed the Rockies, explored the Yellowstone, or battled the Colorado.

Richard A. Bartlett, Professor Emeritus of History in Florida State University is a well-known writer in the field of western history. Bartlett was educated at the Universities of Colorado and Chicago and became interested in the Great Surveys while in the mining camps of Boulder County, Colorado.