Pony Express Route: April 3, 1860 - October 24, 1861. Issued by the American Pioneer Trails Association in Commemoration of the Pony Express Centennial. April 3, 1960 - October 24, 1961

Bayside, NY: American Pioneer Trails Association, 1960. William Henry Jackson. Pictorial map [22 x 72 cm] printed on a single unfolded, unbound sheet [26 x 76 cm]. Tiny unobtrusive bump/chip to top right corner, still Near Fine. Nice bright images and illustrations. "Shows route of Pony Express with names and location of relay stations. Route covers 1,600 miles with total of 190 stations every twenty miles from California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. Each of these stations was staffed and equipped to provide a fresh horse for each of the eighty riders who made a 120-mile ride before handing the mail off to the next man. In this manner, the mail could be delivered between St. Joseph, Missouri, across the Great Plains, over the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada to Sacramento, California, in just 10 days (https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/11878103)."

Color illustrations by William Henry Jackson include: Valley of the Great Salt Lake, Through the South Pass, Sweetwater Station Near Rock Independence, Platte Bridge, Old Fort Laramie, Old Fort Kearny, Chimney Rock, Court House Rock, Buffalo in the Valley of the Platte, Relay Station Near Utah Desert, Through Snow over the Sierra's, and Sacramento - Passing Old Fort Sutter, among other unlabeled illustrations. Famous artist and photographer of the American West, William Henry Jackson's work popularized many sites of the region and were pivotal to familiarizing people with many of its most iconic places.

Text by Howard R. Driggs: "Over this historic route daring young Americans on fleet horses sped night and day while other courageous men kept and supplied the stations along the far-flung, dangerous line. This pioneer fast mail service, maintained despite serious loss to its patriotic promoters, made a notable contribution to our national welfare. The Pony Express, following the direct northern route, brought our far West much closer to our East, thereby helping to hold our frontier territory with its treasures of gold in our union. It blazed the way for the overland stage to California, hastened the building of the first transcontinental railroad and telegraph and added one of the most stirring chapters to the history of America's making." Howard R. Driggs was a prolific author, editor, and a professor of English at the University of Utah and New York University.