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Possibly The Only Known Example

Colorful large map of Texas, promoting the lines of the Texas and Pacific Railway, the first railroad to traverse Texas from east to west, embellished with a large image of the courthouse in Paris, Texas.

This rare map of the state of Texas promoting the Texas & Pacific Railway was published following the recapitalization of the company under Jay Gould, which allowed the company to expand westward toward El Paso, although the actual line would only reach Sierra Blanca (here shown as Blanco), before an agreement with the Southern Pacific allowed for sharing the tracks westward to El Paso and then on to San Diego via the Southern Pacific's tracks.

The map emphasizes the lines of the Texas & Pacific and feeder lines, showing the stations along the route in remarkable detail,

The present map is far rarer than the 1876 version of the map.

Texas and Pacific Railway

The Texas and Pacific Railway (T&P) was chartered by Congress on March 3, 1871, under the name Texas Pacific Railroad Company, and renamed Texas and Pacific Railway Company on May 2, 1872. The plan was to build a southern transcontinental route from Marshall, Texas, to San Diego, California.

The federal government granted the company land in California, Arizona, and New Mexico, while Texas provided additional land grants. One of the company's first acquisitions was the Southern Pacific Railroad Company (unrelated to the later Southern Pacific system), which it purchased in 1872. The Southern Pacific operated the sixty-six-mile line between Longview and Shreveport, which was integrated into the T&P system.

The Panic of 1873 halted the T&P's construction efforts, but work resumed in 1876. By that year, the company had built 444 miles of track, including the important line from Dallas to Fort Worth. Jay Gould organized a syndicate in 1879 to finance the completion of the T&P, and under the direction of Grenville M. Dodge, the company laid 520 miles of track from Fort Worth to Sierra Blanca by the end of 1881. Despite this expansion, the Southern Pacific Railroad reached El Paso from California first, leading to a legal dispute resolved in the "Gould-Huntington Agreement" of November 26, 1881. The agreement stipulated that the Texas and Pacific would build no further than Sierra Blanca, sharing the line to El Paso with the Southern Pacific.

By 1881, the T&P had constructed 972 miles of track but only received land grants for the miles east of Fort Worth, totaling 5,173,120 acres. In 1891, the state of Texas recovered over 256,000 acres of land from the T&P after a legal dispute about sidetracks. The company expanded its operations, completing a route from Shreveport to New Orleans in 1882. The T&P also acquired several small lines in the following decades, including the Denison and Pacific Suburban Railway in 1895 and the Weatherford, Mineral Wells, and Northwestern Railway in 1903.

In addition to building new lines, the Texas and Pacific invested in various short-line railroads, maintaining their corporate identities. It also held interests in terminal companies in Dallas and El Paso, further solidifying its importance in Texas' rail network. By the late 19th century, the T&P had become a crucial component of the state's infrastructure, influencing regional trade and transportation. 

Rarity

The map is very rare.

We were unable to locate any other examples of the map.