Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Rail Road. The new and direct route to the San Juan gold and silver mines
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: 1870s or 1880s
This broadside promotes travel to the Colorado mines via the AT&SF railroad. The route began at Kansas City and traveled to Denver with various stops in between. This item demonstrates railroad companies' involvement in the promotion of mining activities and a perception of the Rocky Mountains as a tourist destination.

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company depot and Harvey House, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Date: Between 1920s and 1930s
This photograph shows the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company depot and Harvey House in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Tudor Revival style depot was built in 1917 with the cooperation of the Santa Fe Railway and the Colorado & Southern Railway Companies. The depot provided passenger service until the tracks were removed in 1971. In September of 1979, the depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the facility is called the Railroad Station Business Center.

Colorado for the tourist
Creator: Union Pacific Railway Company
Date: 1920s
This Union Pacific Railroad Company promotional advertisement describes the beautiful scenery provided to the tourist in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Colorado, its resorts and attractions to the pleasure-seeker, tourist and invalid
Creator: Kansas Pacific Railway Company
Date: Reprinted 1873 (Original 1870)
This promotional pamphlet produced by the Kansas Pacific Railway promotes Colorado tourism and highlights resorts and attractions along the company's Colorado rail transportation line.

Colorado train service via Rock Island Lines, Summer 1912
Creator: Rock Island Railroad Company
Date: 1912
This brochure advertises the services of four trains of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. Two of the trains are from Chicago and Omaha and the other two are from St. Louis and Kansas City. The trains from Chicago and Omaha are the "Rocky Mountain Limited" and the "Colorado and California Express" The two trains from St. Louis and Kansas City are the "Colorado-Pacific Coast Express" and the "Colorado Flyer." The daily schedules for each train are included. Such features as electric lighted cars; a buffet-library-observation car with barber, valet and Victrola recitals; and telegraphic bulletins.

Compliments of the Great Rock Island Route
Creator: Rock Island Railroad Company
Date: 1890
This is a Rock Island Railroad promotional advertisement in the form of a monthly calendar detailing the various major routes of the line. The first image shows a photographic transparency of the poster taken in the 1960s when the poster was still in good condition. The second image shows a recent scan of the original poster and the resulting deterioration over the last forty years.

Great Rock Island route. Solid vestibule trains
Creator: Rock Island Railroad Company
Date: 1890
Rock Island Railroad promotional advertisement in the form of a monthly calendar detailing the line route between Chicago and Kansas City, Council Bluffs, Colorado Springs, Denver and Pueblo.

James Glenn McKethen and family members
Date: September 1908
A photograph showing (left to right) Robert L. Carmichael (1850-1911), Sallie Ann (Taylor) Carmichael (1852-1936), Andrew Jackson Pickett (1846-1932), Amanda Melvina (Taylor) Pickett (1847-1922), James Glenn McKethen (1850-1942), and Hulda Amelia (Taylor) McKethen (1850-1930) on donkeys in Colorado Springs, Colorado. James Glenn and Hulda Amelia McKethen lived in Rexford, Kansas. They were vacationing in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Lightning!! Look at the time! - Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe R.R.
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: Between 1890 and 1910
This poster advertises a "Lightning Express Train" leaving Kansas City at 11:30 a.m. daily and arriving at Pueblo, Colorado at 3 p.m. the next day; then on to Denver, arriving at 8:30 p.m. that day. It claims to be the only direct route to the San Jaun mines. It is also called, "The Tourists' Route", because it passes through the "Great Arkansas Valley."

L. W. Halbe Collection
Creator: Halbe, L. W. (Leslie Winfield), 1893-1981
Date: 1908-1912
The L. W. (Leslie Winfield) Halbe photo collection consists of 1500 glass plate negatives produced by Halbe during his teenage years. Halbe lived in Dorrance, Russell County, Kansas, and began taking photographs of the region with an inexpensive Sears and Roebuck camera when he was fifteen years old.

Map of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad Company
Date: Between 1870 and 1890
This Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad poster promotes travel from Kansas City to Denver, Colorado, to the San Juan gold and silver mines. The poster includes a stylized map of the route and was printed in several different colors.

Mary Shields to Governor John St. John
Date: August 07, 1880
A letter from temperance advocate Mary Shields requesting Kansas Governor John St. John speak to her Colorado community in September if convenient. She states "we think that Gov. St. John is not of Kansas, but belongs to the world and humanity." Mary Shields was president of the Colorado Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

Mary Shields to Governor John St. John
Creator: Shields, Mary
Date: August 12, 1880
In this letter, Mary Shields, president of the Colorado Woman's Christian Temperance Union, expresses her regret that Kansas Governor St. John cannot address the state union of Colorado and invites the Governor to speak another day while he visits Colorado Springs.

Rambles through the great Kansas valley, and in eastern Colorado
Creator: Kansas Pacific Railway Company
Date: 1878
This Kansas Pacific Railway land promotional publication describes the natural scenery and resources to be found along the Kansas Pacific route with respect to its future economic development. The last section of text relates to buying Kansas Pacific Railway land. There are a number of advertisements for various businesses, particularly in the Colorado Springs, Colorado area.

Scenes on the Line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad Company
Date: 1870s or 1880s
This is an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad promotional advertisement of wild life, rock formations and frontier settlements to be found on the railroad line. The second sheet includes engravings, possibly by Henry Worall, of sites along the route including prairie scences with antelope, prairie dogs, and bison; a dugout on the plains; the Rocky Mountains; and the Garden of the Gods. The document also includes a map of the AT&SF route.

Six and one-half hours to Pueblo and the celebrated San Juan gold and silver mines
Date: 1876
This poster advertises a six and one-half hour trip west to Pueblo, Colorado, and the San Juan mines on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad. An abbreviated map indicates the route beginning in central Missouri. Of interest is an etching of the Arkansas Canyon by Henry Worrall. Features advertised are non-stop accommodations on Pullman sleeping cars and a "new route" through the Arkansas Valley.

Summer excursions on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: Between 1880 and 1910
This advertising poster by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad encourages summer travel between Kansas City and Atchison to Pueblo, Denver, Colorado Springs and Manitou on the best line in the West with the finest Pullman sleeping cars.

Summer excursions on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: Between 1880 and 1910
This advertisement is for tourists from "all stations west of the Missouri River" to visit Pueblo, Denver, Manitou, Canon City, LaVeta and all the resorts of the Rocky Mountains, including the San Juan Mines.

The new line from Kansas City and Atchison to Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad Company
Date: Between 1870 and 1890
This Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad poster promotes travel between Kansas City west to all points in the Rocky Mountains, including Atchison, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Denver.

Union Pacific Rail Road Company tourist's folder
Creator: Union Pacific Railroad Company
Date: Between May 1, 1888 and September 30, 1888
This tourist folder shows time tables and site information for six routes of the Union Pacific Rail Road Company and the Kansas Pacific Rail Road Company to various tourist destinations in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado for the summer of 1888. Side one is nine panels of time tables with information about Idaho Springs and Estes Park. The reverse side has six panels describing the features of other sites. It also has a map of most of Colorado and southern Wyoming showing the routes to the different tourist sites.

U.S. 40. The main street of America
Creator: U.S. 40 Highway Association, Inc.
Date: 1920s
This pamphlet by the U.S. 40 Highway Association promotes U.S. Route 40 as the trans-continental highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California. At the pamphlet's creation, the highway had not yet been completed and reached to eight miles west of Topeka, Kansas. Raymond M. Sawhill of Glasco, Kansas, was the secretary of the local organization. The pamphlet contains a map of the route and there are charts listing the distance between all the cities through which the highway would pass. The charts also list the population of each of the cities. This pamphlet proposes a northern and southern route through the middle and western portions between Manhattan, Kansas, and Limon, Colorado.

Vear Porter Wilson
Date: Between 1880 and 1890
These black and white photographs show Vear Porter Wilson (1828-1899), newspaper editor, publisher and politician. Born on April 1,1828, to John Wilson and Elizabeth Porter Wilson in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He later moved with his parents, in 1839, to the state of Ohio. Wilson eventually established a career as a newspaper editor and publisher, in 1858, with "The Iron Valley Times" in Dover, Ohio. In 1870, Wilson organized and lead a group of settlers know as "The Buckeye Colony" from Tuscarawas County, Ohio, to Dickinson County, Kansas. With wife Maria and family, he settled in the town's county seat of Abilene, Kansas. In February of 1870, Wilson established the first paper in the county called "The Abilene Chronicle." He later owned and operated "The Abilene Gazette, Republican," "The North Topeka Times," and "The Kansas Gazette." As he wrote about the concerns and issues of the day, he became actively involved in the community of Abilene. He served as a judge, post master, and as a minister of the Universalist Church. Wilson also received an appointment to serve as a regent to the state university (1881-1884). In 1872, he successfully ran for a seat in the Kansas Senate and was elected as a Republican to represent the Twenty-Seventh District (1873-1874). Wilson didn't seek re-election in 1874, but returned to private life to seek new opportunities. In January of 1875, Wilson and a group of business men organized a town company in Enterprise, Kansas. Within a few years of its existence the town became a progressive community. His success as a civic leader expanded beyond the Kansas prairie when, in 1885, he led a group of pioneers to Atwood, Colorado. In this small northeastern community, he and his sons established a weekly paper called "The Atwood Advocate." Unfortunately, due to the lack of economic success in the town, Wilson's sons Victor and John moved the paper to the nearby town of Sterling, Colorado. Wilson eventually moved to Denver, Colorado where he owned and operated "The Colorado Springs Gazette and "The Denver Press." On February 14, 1899, Wilson unexpectedly passed away at the age of seventy-one at his son Thomas's home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was buried at the Abilene Cemetery in Abilene, Kansas.