"First Mail West - Stagecoach Lines on the Santa Fe Trail" by Morris F. Taylor from my personal research library. Hardcover with protected dust jacket. 253 pages with chapter notes, bibligraphy and index. First edition, near fine. $20 plus $2.50 postage. Paypal, USPS money order or personal check. Shipping to CONUS.
This book was published at the time the Southwest was celebrating the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Santa Fe Trail. The author tells the story of the stagecoach lines that carried passengers and mail over the Trail from 1850 to 1879, when the railroads took over their traffic. It is a history of the transportation business that helped build the Southwest, not a tale of romantic adventure. From commercial records and ledgers, from waybills and travelers' letters, from Post Office Department records showing the fierce competitive struggle for the government mail contract, the author has drawn this account of the small, independent stage lines on the Santa Fe Trail. He describes the roads they used, the land along them, the physical equipment of the lines, their fares, their stations and accommodations for passengers, and the nature of the country, the people, and the trade at the end of the route in New Mexico.
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This book was published at the time the Southwest was celebrating the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Santa Fe Trail. The author tells the story of the stagecoach lines that carried passengers and mail over the Trail from 1850 to 1879, when the railroads took over their traffic. It is a history of the transportation business that helped build the Southwest, not a tale of romantic adventure. From commercial records and ledgers, from waybills and travelers' letters, from Post Office Department records showing the fierce competitive struggle for the government mail contract, the author has drawn this account of the small, independent stage lines on the Santa Fe Trail. He describes the roads they used, the land along them, the physical equipment of the lines, their fares, their stations and accommodations for passengers, and the nature of the country, the people, and the trade at the end of the route in New Mexico.
Thanks for looking...
