(Colorado Gold Rush) Guide to Kansas the Pike's Peak Gold...

Guide To Kansas The Pike's Peak Gold Region &c. &c.

The power of this small folding guide can be found as much in its quality of artifact, as in its cartographic strength, for this would have been the guidebook and maps that you clutched, and trusted to get you across the plains. A part of the country which on maps not long prior was just labeled as "The Great American Desert". But this handsome guide could be your passport to fortune.

While the gold rush began in 1858 and the guidebooks that were made were of various qualities, many made by people who had never been to the region. While both Redpath and Hinton were newspapermen in eastern Kansas, this guide at the time was stated to be "the best, as it is the fullest, of its kind yet produced." Drawing from miners reports and government publications, this guide didn't prefer one route over another on how to reach the region, but looked at several and discussed the "merits and demerits" of each.

This guide contains two maps, one in the front cover, the "Kansas and Nebraska" by Colton. And a second in back by G.K. Warren titled "Military Map of Parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Dakota...". The map in the front cover is a composite of two Colton maps on one sheet, the top being the eastern portions of Nebraska and Kansas, and the second map on the bottom being the "Nebraska and Kanzas" that spans the entire area, from the Great Salt Lake to Missouri. While this map may serve general purposes, the Warren map in back supplies the detail and reference really needed to reach the Gold Fields.

Condition is very good with some minor fold separations, and small staining to the front cover of the guide. The guidebook measures 6 x 4 and has 178 pages of text with some addition ad pages. First map dimensions are approximately 16.25 x 27. The second map is approximately 31 x 17.5 (inches).