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The nineteenth century was an era of mapmaking and imposing man-made boundaries on the often-wild landscape of the Texas frontier. One of the most magnificent and accurate maps produced during this period is Pressler’s Map of the State of Texas, published by Charles Pressler in 1858.

However, compared to a modern map of Texas, some discrepancies are easy to spot.

Look just to the northeast of Houston on Pressler’s map. Lake Houston isn’t there. In fact, almost all of Texas’s lakes are missing on Pressler’s map. There is only one natural lake in Texas—Caddo Lake on the border with Louisiana. The rest are man-made, mostly in the twentieth century. Lake Houston didn’t exist until 1954 when the San Jacinto River was dammed to create a reliable and clean water supply for the city.

Not all the differences are man-made. Compare the course of the Red River on Pressler’s map to a modern one. They don’t look the same. Erosion, sediment deposits, and flooding are causing the Red River to gradually move northward. In fact, the Red River’s course has changed so much over time that in 1923, the U.S. Supreme Court had to define the exact location of the border between Texas and Oklahoma, and disputes over who owns the land along the riverbank continue to this day.

These differences don’t make Pressler’s accomplishment any less impressive or diminish the importance of his map. Instead, they mean that this map tells the story both of Pressler’s Texas and also how subsequent Texans have changed and shaped their state over the past 150+ years.