This sizable map provides a remarkable snapshot of railroad development in the western United States and is noteworthy for being the first map to name the "Grand Canyon of the Colorado." It was made under the direction of William Palmer "together with compilations from Keeler's Official Map showing the Central and Northern Routes to the Pacific." Completed railroads and railroads in progress are noted throughout including the lines of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, Northern Pacific Railroad, and Union Pacific Railroad which is nearly complete (a small section in Utah remained unfinished). Palmer's map was issued to promote the Kansas Pacific Railway, which is shown here extending from Kansas City to Anton Chico, where it met the Southern Continental Railroad to California. The line is shown as completed to Ft. Wallace in western Kansas, but the line would only make it as far as Denver. In addition to railroads, the map is filled with detail including forts, military posts, land offices, Indian tribes, routes, mineral deposits, and much more. Lithographed by J.F. Gedney in Washington.

References: Modelski #565; Wheat #1206.

Condition: B

Issued folding with light toning along the fold lines, scattered foxing, and several short archivally repaired fold separations with some minute image loss in a few places. There are a number of tiny tears along the central vertical fold.