This series of maps was produced as a result of Chapter 733 of the Laws of 1872, passed by the New York State Legislature to appropriate money "to aid in completing a survey of the Adirondack wilderness of New York". Chapter 848 of the Laws of 1872 appointed commissioners for two years to survey "the timber regions lying within counties (of the Adirondack region)", in order to convert the land into a public park. The Superintendent of the State Land Survey was empowered to conduct any surveys the State Comptroller and the State Forestry Commission authorized to settle disputed boundary titles. Periodic appropriations were passed to continue the survey. Verplanck Colvin, as Superintendent of the Adirondack Survey (later the Superintendent of the State Land Survey), and his assistants conducted the survey during the 1870s and 1890s. Most of the maps were created by Colvin and his staff using their field notes compiled during the survey. Primary delineators of the maps include Colvin and his assistants: Thew, Francisco, Richards, LeFevre, Hutchins, Tweedy, Blake, Snell, Wilson, and Locke. Other delineators named on the maps are Stoddard, Case, Arnold, Gere, Steele, Shaw, Averill, Johnson, Vaughan, Broadwell, Cooper, Richard, Straug, Davis, Jones, Anderson, Ward, Horsford, Burrus, Chase, Kellogg, Quirk, and Curtis.
