Three Surveyors and That Other Guy
To those who aren’t surveyors, that means Mount Rushmore.
Teddy Roosevelt’s map of the River of Doubt
While he never earned the title of surveyor or developed surveying expertise, Roosevelt was instrumental in mapping a thousand mile-long unchartered river in Brazil.
(Library of Congress item 2006629765)
Did you know that it could be argued that all of the presidents on Mount Rushmore were surveyors? Three of the presidents are acknowledged surveyors: Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson.
But what about That Other Guy, Theodore Roosevelt?
Theodore Roosevelt is well-known as an explorer and outdoorsman, but not as well-known for his mapmaking trip to Brazil in 1913.
Initially invited by the Brazilian government to give a series of talks, he seized the opportunity to join an expedition to map the course of the uncharted Rio da Duvida (River of Doubt), an Amazon tributary. The 55-year-old Roosevelt said that it was his “last chance to be a boy.”
A perilous journey
Trekking into the Brazilian wilderness was a perilous journey, even for seasoned explorers like Roosevelt and his son Kermit. The expedition was made up of Americans and Brazilian scientists and guides, a total of 19 people . . not all of whom survived.
One person died by accident, the second disappeared and another was murdered. Roosevelt himself nearly died and was literally carried out of the jungle by his malaria-infected son. At the end of the expedition, Roosevelt had lost a quarter of his body mass and never regained his full health and vigor.
Throughout the entire 1500 kilometer expedition, Roosevelt kept a diary and produced a map charting the River of Doubt. Making and preserving that map was incredibly difficult, especially since they lost most of their dugout canoes, had consumed or lost most of their food, and the crew was near mutiny by the end of the trip. Success was definitely not guaranteed.
They made it!
But they (and the map) made it. A witness to their exit from the jungle at Sao Joao on April 27, 1913 wrote:
"The men looked almost inhuman. After weeks of surviving on a little more than a few bites of fish and a single biscuit each night, they were gaunt and hollow-cheeked. The clothes on their backs– the only clothing they had left- were in tatters, and wherever their skin appeared, it was bruised, cut, sunburned, and peppered with insect bites. They were filthy and wild-eyed from disease and fear, and their American commander [Roosevelt] was barely clinging to life."*
Doubt about the River of Doubt?
Theodore Roosevelt, seated at a folding table, writing, during the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition to Brazil (Library of Congress)
After all of that, many people doubted that Roosevelt and crew had actually mapped the River of Doubt! The Royal Geoographical Society stated that he “made up” the River of Doubt, and the National Geographic Society also questioned the map’s authenticity.
The matter was finally settled in 1927 (eight years after Roosevelt’s death) when the American explorer George Miller Dyott led a second trip down the river, confirming Roosevelt's discoveries.
The Brazilian Government never doubted Roosevelt’s accomplishment and had renamed the Rio da Duvida as the Rio Roosevelt shortly after the expedition’s completion. Today, the river still bears his name. Roosevelt may have not been a surveyor, but the Rio Roosevelt is a monument to his mapping skills.
View a film of the expedition from the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/mp76000367