In the time of the flatboats and the coming of the first steamboats documented so well through the early American navigational river guides, maps clearly indicated a future problem for St. Louis and its highly praised river harbor—the city was essentially on a peninsula which could become a remote island due to floods and other naturally occurring circumstances over time. The many islands and sand bars in the river were alarming testament in early maps.
This map was an inserted extra leaf in the 1811 edition of Zadok Cramer's Navigator.
This map was produced by Gardiner as Chief Clerk of the General Land Office of the United States under pressure by Congress to begin the sale of "bounty lands" cheaply to veterans of past wars in recognition of military service rendered. This map was signed by Gardiner in distributing, verifying and describing a new settler's plot: "Description of the SE of section 35 in township 4N of range 7 West. A stream in the quarter section, part gently rolling woodland and good soil, part level, Rich prairie; Timber Oak & Hickory underwood, Hazel. Your lot is black in the yellow township."
This map was produced by Gardiner as Chief Clerk of the General Land Office of the United States under pressure by Congress to begin the sale of "bounty lands" cheaply to veterans of past wars in recognition of military service rendered. This map is the first official United States survey of any territory in the trans-Mississippi west., "Entered according to act of Congress by John Gardiner, Distt. Columa."