Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Old Cape Fear River Charts

I admit this goes outside the Piedmont, but lately I have been looking at old governmental charts of the Cape Fear River. Many of these can be found on the NC Maps website:
http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/ncmaps/browse_location.html
But some have not found their way onto that site (yet). Here's an effort at a checklist of charts of the Cape Fear River (bold indicates that it is NOT on the NC Maps site):

The James Glynn Maps:
Cape Fear River, [1839].
A Chart of the Entrance of Cape Fear River, 1839. UNC has a paper copy.
Continuation of the survey of Cape Fear River, [1839].

United States Coast Survey:
D-6 Sketch showing the progress of the survey at Cape Fear River & Frying Pan Shoals, 1851. From 1851 Report of USCS.
D-7 Sketch of Frying Pan Shoals and Cape Fear River, 1851. From 1851 Report of USCS.
D-2 Progress of Survey of Cape Fear and Vicinity to New River, 1852. From 1852 Report of USCS. Retitled "Sketch of Progress of Survey of Cape Fear and Vicinity to South Carolina" in 1853 Report of USCS.
D-? Preliminary chart of the entrances to Cape Fear River and New Inlet, 1853. I think this was included in the 1853 Report of USCS. UNC has a paper copy.
Preliminary sketch of the entrances to Cape Fear River and New Inlet, 1853.
Chart of Bar Cape Fear River, 1853.
Chart of New Inlet Cape Fear River, 1853.
#16 or D-3 Preliminary chart of lower part of Cape Fear River, 1855. From 1855 Report of USCS. Also 1856 edition in the 1856 Report of USCS. Later became #424 below.
#32 Preliminary chart of Frying Pan Shoals and entrances to Cape Fear River, 1857. UNC has a paper copy of this.
Comparative chart of Cape Fear River entrances, 1857. UNC has a paper copy.
Cape Fear River, 1858?-1865?
Comparative chart of Cape Fear River Bars, 1858. From 1858 USCS Report. UNC does not have this.
#12 Comparative chart of New Inlet Bar, northern entrance of Cape Fear River, 1858? UNC has a paper copy.
#48 Cape Fear and approaches, including the river to Wilmington, 1863. Also undated.

Army Corps of Topographical Engineers:
Chart of New Inlet, Cape Fear River, 1853?
Chart of Bar, Cape Fear River, 1853?
Both of these are in Message from the President of the United States to Congress, 1853.

US Coast and Geodetic Survey:
#149 Old Topsail Inlet to Cape Fear, 1889. Also 1897.
#150 Masonboro Inlet to Shallotte Inlet, including Cape Fear, 1888. Also 1897.
#424 Cape Fear River, from entrance to Reeves Point, 1866. Also 1887, 1888, & 1897. Included in 1865 Report of USCS under title "Entrances to Cape Fear River."
#425 Cape Fear River, from Reeves Point to Wilmington, 1888. Also 1893, 1897 & 1899. AKA "Federal Point to Wilmington."

Army Corps of Engineers:
1. Present Progress Cape Fear River (below Wilmington), 1884-1885. From the 1885 Report.
2. Fayetteville Shoals and McCarter's Cross, 1885. From the 1885 Report.
The 1886 Report has a fold-out map that I have not seen.
3. Wilmington . . . Snow's Marsh Channel, 1888. The 1888 Report contains a fold-out map, but I am not sure what the title is - something along the above lines.
4. Cape Fear River, NC Above Wilmington - Shoals and Jetties Sheet 1, 1889. There were apparently three sheets with this title and I suppose they came from the 1890 Report. I have only seen sheets 2 and 3.
5. Cape Fear River, NC Above Wilmington - Shoals and Jetties Sheet 2, 1889. Covers McCarter's Cross Shoal, Old Jetties Shoal, Evans Narrows Shoal, Smith's Cross Shoal, Rockfish Creek Shoal.
6. Cape Fear River, NC Above Wilmington - Shoals and Jetties Sheet 3, 1889. Covers Thames Shoal, The Dodge Shoals and Windom's Shoal.
7. Improvement of Cape Fear River, N.C. above Wilmington - McCarter's Cross Shoals and Cypress Shoals, 1896.
8. ? There were at least two other pertinent fold-outs in the 1896 Report of the Chief of Engineers, but I have not seen them.
9. ?

Apparently maps were produced in 1895 for possible improvments above Fayetteville, but they were not included in the 1896 Report; however the maps were included in House Document 65 from the 54th session. No copy of that House Document has been located.

The 1872 Report includes more information on possible improvements above Fayetteville on pages 741-749. The 1873 Report has a lengthy discussion of the river below Wilmington and old charts that were then available, but none of the charts were reproduced for the report.

There were several other charts of the work of the ACE and I am gradually assembling a list of those.

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