Charles Preuss

George Karl Ludwig Preuss (born 1803), Anglicized as Charles Preuss, was a surveyor and cartographer who accompanied John C. Fremont on his exploratory expeditions of the American west, including the expedition where he and Fremont were the first to record seeing Lake Tahoe from a mountaintop vantage point as they traversed what is now Carson Pass in February 1844. He participated in expeditions until he reached the age of 50. One year later, in 1854, he committed suicide.

"Born in Höhscheid in 1803. After studying the science of geodesy, he became a surveyor for the Prussian government. After moving to the United States in 1834 with his wife and children, he worked for the Coast Survey under Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler."

"Frémont's sensational report included an excellent topographical map by Charles Preuss, The large sheet, which depicted the routes of both of Frémont's expeditions, was a cartographic milestone. By accurately representing the basic features of the new country, Preuss changed the course of western mapmaking. No longer would cartography be based on myth and speculation."

In 1846, Preuss completed another map, more important for prospective emigrants than the first. On seven sheets he carefully traced the Oregon Trail, using Frémont's narrative to indicate campsites with essential grass, wood, and water and to show distances, climate, and Indian inhabitants. Widely popular among those who took the Platte River road to Oregon and California, this annotated atlas was one of the greatest contributions Frémont and Preuss made to the development of the West."

Pruess Lake (sic), located south of Garrison in west-central Utah, is named after him.

His diary of the Fremont expedition was featured on a 2008 episode of This American Life. It contrasted Fremont's exuberance with Preuss' sober, often humorously melancholy opinions of the expedition. [1]

The Army Geospatial Center has mounted a number of plaques commemorating famous topographic engineers. One plaque reads: "George Karl (Charles) Ludwig Preuss, "Fremont’s Cartographer", 1803-1854. Charles Preuss was born in Hohsheid (Prussia, now Germany) in 1803. After studying the science of geodesy, he became a surveyor for the Prussian government. After moving to the United States he worked for the Coast Survey under Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler. In 1838, when funds for this Survey ran out, Preuss found himself unemployed. Hassler recommended Preuss to John Charles Fremont, a young 2nd lieutenant who was preparing an expedition exploring the lands between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Preuss was hired on to reduce astronomical observations from this 1839 Nicollet survey. Preuss failed at this but proved himself a fine artist; keeping a daily map of the route. In 1842 Fremont was preparing an expedition out of St. Louis to map the Pacific Northwest and kept Preuss employed. Preuss was 39 by this time, red-faced and ill-humored. They were a badly matched pair, but Preuss played perfect counterpoint to Fremont. If Fremont saw the poetry in the unfolding landscapes around him, Preuss saw precise longitudes and latitudes. Preuss proved to be an important member of Fremont’s expeditions of 1842-44 and 1848 as well. The Fremont/Preuss maps of this period were the basis for all western maps of the following two decades. One author writing on the mapping of the Transmississippi West said, “The 1845 Fremont/Preuss map changed the entire picture of the West, and made a lasting contribution to cartography.”

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