Table Of Distances Of The Overland Stage Line, From Atchison, Kansas, To Great Salt Lake City, The Route Passing Through Denver City, Thence By The Cherokee Trail Along Cache La Poudre River, Through Laramie Plains, By Fort Halleck And Medicine Bow Mountains, Bridger's Pass And Fort Bridger, To Great Salt Lake City.

BEN HOLLADAY

Publication: Slote and Janes, 1863, New York

First edition. 4 3/4" x 3 3/8" folded sheet, 4 pp. with a lengthy printed time table on the second, third, and fourth pages. A rare survival, this stagecoach timetable was issued by Ben Holladay's Overland Stage Company and gives information on the route from Atchison, Kansas, to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1863. It is a very detailed timetable issued by Holladay's stage line, listing ninety-eight stations from Atchison to Salt Lake City, and is very rare in the market.
The present timetable was issued by Ben Holladay in 1863, during his ascent as a stagecoach and travel entrepreneur, when his offices were located at No. 88 Wall Street in New York. The second, third, and fourth pages list the full route from Kansas to Utah, giving miles between stations and cumulative miles for the route - 1,245 miles in all. Holladay's Overland Stage took a relatively northerly route, passing
through Fort Kearney, Denver, and Fort Bridger before reaching Salt Lake City. Holladay allowed his passengers to lay over at any point on the route, and to resume their travels on a coach with vacant seats. Stations averaged about thirteen miles apart, and meals were provided at convenient distances. At the time this publication was produced, Ben Holladay was in his ascent, on his way to becoming "one of the greatest transportation figures America has produced...his impact on the frontier was immense and enduring" (Thrapp). After the Mexican-American War, Holladay established a freighting business to Salt Lake Territory, where he enjoyed the support of Brigham Young. A few years later he purchased the
Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company, and kept growing his business, becoming the largest stagecoach and freight company in the world. Within a few years, however, Holladay suffered setbacks, due in part to the Cheyenne uprising, and in 1866 he sold his stagecoach empire to Wells, Fargo and Company.This issue of Holladay's timetable is listed in the third (1955) edition of Wagner-Camp, but for some reason was not included in the fourth edition of that reference. In 1955 Wagner-Camp located only the copies at Yale and the Holliday copy (which sold for $175 in 1954). OCLC locates eight copies (under
several accession numbers) of this timetable from Atchison to Salt Lake City. Streeter and Graff each had copies of a later Holladay timetable, taking the route all the way to California, but not this earlier issue. Fine, bright copy housed in a quarter leather and cloth clamshell case with titles stamped in gold gilt on the spine.