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The Whipple Expedition to the Southwest (Part 1)

© Elizabeth Gibson

Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple had just finished surveying the border between the U.S. and Mexico when on February 4, 1853, he received orders to return to the headquarters of the Corps of Topographical Engineers in Washington, D.C. The Corps had become a permanent part of the army in 1838 and consisted of graduating officers of West Point. Initially they had been organized to build army projects, but their main purpose evolved into exploration and development of the west. As an officer of the Corps, Whipple would be surveying a southern transcontinental route for the United States Pacific Railroad.

Whipple had graduated from West Point in 1841, fifth in a class of 41. He was assigned to the Corps and had acted as surveyor on several projects in Maryland, New Hampshire, and Louisiana. He spent five years surveying the northeastern boundary between the United States and Canada. After that, he was surveyor and astronomer for the border survey between the U.S. and Mexico. He was well qualified for the appointment to survey the railroad route. He would provide exact information elevations and grades of mountain passes and meteorological and astronomical observations. He would also report on availability of water and timber and the type of mineral resources, rocks, and soil. He would map the route, report on plant and animal life, established settlements, and disposition of the Indian tribes.

The wagon train left Fort Smith, Arkansas on July 15, 1853, and would arrive at Los Angeles on March 21, 1854. A wagon train, rather than a pack train, was used since the route would later have to be used by wagons. With him on the expedition was his second in command, Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives, chief assistant astronomer. Lt. David S. Stanley served as quartermaster and Lt. John M. Jones commanded the military escort. The senior civilian scientists included John M. Bigelow (botanist), Albert H. Campbell (engineer), Dr. C. B. R. Kennerly (zoologist), H. Balduin Mollhausen (artist and naturalist), and Jules Marcou (geologist and mining engineer). Other men on the expedition were Hugh Campbell, George G. Garner, and Thomas J. Parke, who were assistant astronomers, William White (meteorological assistant), and H. Henry Hutton and Walter Jones, assistant surveyors. Whipple also hired a number of herders and teamsters, when he arrived in Arkansas. John P. Sherburne, the writer of the diary that provides the source for this article, was the brother-in-law of Whipple.

The route would take them along the Canadian River through Indian territory. Then they would cross the Pecos River and head toward the Rio Grande at Albuquerque, New Mexico. This part of the route was already well traveled by traders, but they needed to survey it for other considerations. The biggest problem was likely to be the Comanches that lived along the route. Beyond that area, the country was less known. They were to find the most practical route through the mountains in northwestern Arizona to reach the Colorado River. From there, they would travel west to San Pedro, the port of Los Angeles.

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