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Description

Spectacular broadside plan of Junction City, Kansas, along with six colored birds-eye views of the town an d a small map of the the region between Junction City and Fort Riley, prepared by Gustave Dyes, Civil Engineer. This remarkable map is one of the rarest and most decorative Kansas promotional maps ever published. Includes an ornate title, decorative border. One of the views is of the middle of town, while another is identified as the Junction City Stone Sawing Co.

Lithographed by Julius Hutawa of St. Louis, this is among the most decorative and attractive maps of the American frontier which we have seen. The present example also has manuscript notes in a contemporary hand identifying the unnamed views (6th Street opposite the Plaza, 7th Street and Washington Street. Karrow (Checklist of Printed Maps of the Middle West to 1900) 13-0527. Only one recorded example (Kansas Historical Society).

Junction City, seat of former Davis County and present Geary County, originally named Manhattan, was founded in 1858, and derived its name from the nearby junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers. On the assumption that the Kaw River was navigable up to the junction of the Republican , Andrew J. Mead of New York had proposed to settle an Ohio company from Cincinnati on the site which is now Junction City. Some thought that the town was to be named New Cincinnati, but others said that their town charter required that the town where they settled should be called Manhattan. Mead, who had chosen the site, said, "After the selection was made, surveyed and christened Manhattan (now Junction City), I...only waited the arrival of the steamer Hartford." But the steamer was stranded downstream with its cargo, colony, and name. In 1859, Junction City was incorporated by a special act by the Kansas Territorial Legislature. Junction City was the junction of three railroads, the Kansas Pacific--the Union Pacific (going east-west), the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (Katy) (going south) and the Junction City & Fort Kearney (going north). In October 1866, the Kansas Pacific depot grounds were marked off, and a turn-table erected. In November 1866, trains commenced to run from Leavenworth to Junction City, and a new era opened up for the people. One thing that added greatly to the growth and importance of Junction City after the completion of the Kansas Pacific Railroad to that point, was the fact that it was made the end of the first division of the railroad. This necessitated the building of a roundhouse, and other workshops at that place which drew a many people to settle in the town. In October 1869 the Kansas Pacific Company sold the roundhouse, workshops, depot and thirty acres of ground to the Union Pacific, Southern Branch Company. On April 3, 1870 the division was changed from Junction City to Wamego... The United States land office for this district was located at Junction City in 1870.

The map identifies an Engine House, but not a round house, in the Railroad Addition. Also, while the Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad and Proposed Republican River Railroad run through Junction City, there is no sign of the Junction City & Fort Kearny or the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroads. The Railroad addition, created in 1870, is noted. The map also shows the home of Col H.F. Hale, who was active in the town in the late 1860s.