Sep 29, 2022 - Sale 2615

Sale 2615 - Lot 278

Unsold
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(WEST--COLORADO.) First Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway. 3 (of 4) folding maps and profiles. 84 pages. 8vo, later 1/4 morocco; dampstaining and minor wear in bottom margin, tasteful repairs to frontispiece map. Philadelphia, 1873
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Additional Details

The initial report of the railroad which would ultimately connect Denver with Mexico City. Some of its narrow-gauge mountain lines remain in use as scenic heritage railways today. This report contains a long appendix by company president William J. Palmer offering a detailed justification of the railway's signature narrow gauge tracks (pages 43-60).

The important frontispiece map is titled "Map of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway and Connections" by Albert von Motz of Colorado Springs, 24 x 14 inches; minor wear, archival Japanese paper repairs to folds, minimal loss. It shows the company's extensive lines in Colorado and New Mexico, as well as roads, mining regions, and topography.

The second map, also by von Motz, is titled "Map Showing the Property of the Central Colorado Improvement Company," 8 1/4 x 13 1/2 inches, with minimal wear. On another folding sheet are two elevation profiles of the railroad, 8 3/4 x 33 inches, with just a bit of wear in the fore-edge margin. Not included is the rare "Map of the Mexico National Railway, Including Its Proposed Extensions and Connections."

Henkle, Colorado 987 (with 3 maps, as here); Modelski, Railroad Maps of the United States 398. We trace just two other copies of this report at auction: one complete in 2006; and one lacking two of the maps.