Terlingua resident and retired National Park Service archeologist Tom Alex will discuss Juan Pedro Walker’s Mapping Expedition of 1805 at the Big Bend Library in Terlingua on Thursday at 6 PM.
According to Alex: Juan (John) Pedro Walker (1781-ca. 1828), was a pioneer cartographer, born in Spanish New Orleans on January 19, 1781, to English and French parentage. In the spring of 1805 Walker was transferred to Chihuahua to serve at the headquarters of Commandant General Nemecio Salcedo y Salcedo, as cartographer. At Chihuahua, 1805 to 1811, Walker produced maps of Spain’s historic territorial claims in the northern reaches of New Spain. One map of the Big Bend area reveals the level of knowledge about the Spanish frontier and the state of settlement in the lower Big Bend region in 1805. This presentation retraces the survey party’s expedition through the Big Bend area.
The talk is free and open to the public. The Big Bend Library is located on Roadrunner Circle near the high school.
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