In the 1820s, Stephen F. Austin was in a bind. He was land rich and cash poor. He needed his new colony in the Mexican state of Texas to succeed. There was only one major problem. How to attract settlers that was so wild and unknown it didn’t even have a map.

In the first episode of our new podcast “The Map is the Thing!” explore the geography of Texas in the 1820s and 30s through the eyes of the engraver who helped publish Austin's map, the first English printed map of the state.