Guide Map of the Great Texas Cattle Trail: Kansas Pacific Railway, 1874 [1955]

• Title: Guide Map of the Great Texas Cattle Trail
  
• Author: Kansas Pacific Railway 
• Date: 1874 [1955]
• Condition: Excellent
• Inches: 15 x 20 [Image]
• Centimeters: 38.10 x 50.80 [Image]
• Product ID: 308694

Reproduced in 1955 by The Branding Iron Press of Evanston, Illinois, this charming portfolio—designed by David T. Vernon—is an edition of 750 numbered copies that were printed in December 1955. This map originates from the extremely rare and highly collectible 1874 pocket map.

Railroad agents distributed this map throughout Texas to persuade trail drivers that the Ellsworth, Kansas railhead offered the most convenient gateway to both Eastern and Western markets.

With more than half a million Texas longhorns driven north the previous year, the Kansas Pacific was eager to capture a larger share of that traffic—and providing maps tailored to working cowboys was its chosen strategy.

Background on Creator

In March 1869, an Act of Congress officially renamed the company the Kansas Pacific Railway. By 1880, it had been consolidated into the Union Pacific Railroad, with its main line absorbed into the broader Union Pacific system, where it remains an important segment of the transcontinental route today. The Kansas Pacific Railway played a crucial role in opening the central Great Plains to settlement and in forging a key transportation corridor between Kansas City and Denver, fueling the economic growth of Kansas and eastern Colorado during a pivotal phase of American westward expansion.