South Dakota State Historical Society Conference

I recently attended the South Dakota State Historical Society 2013 History Conference. There were many great papers, but the one that stands out in my mind used maps plus a diary as primary resources. Graham Callaway talked about G.K. Warren’s 1856 maps of the Missouri River. These maps were only available at the National Archives, but are now published in the book by W. Raymond Wood and Graham Callaway from the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Hutton, a member of the expedition, also kept a journal of the expedition to map the river. Information from the diary helped the authors to interpret some of the symbols on the maps. There are 39 maps depicting the Missour River from what is now the Kansas-Nebraska border to the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. Of special interest to me was the map showing the Vermillion area.