1926 Montross-Clarke Railroad Map of the Western United States

This is a 1926 Montross and Clarke map of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) railway network in the Western United States. The map depicts the region from the Pacific Ocean to Chicago and from Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois to Texas, Mexico, and the Gulf of Mexico. Incredibly detailed, the ATSF's route is illustrated in red, with each stop along its each route marked and labeled. Other rail lines throughout the American West are illustrated and labeled, such as the Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, and the Western Pacific. Important cities and towns along these routes are also labeled. The Grand Canyon, which had only been made a National Park in 1919, is depicted in Arizona, with a ATSF spur line servicing the park.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe

The ATSF was chartered on February 11, 1859, with the stated goal of joining Atchison and Topeka, Kansas with Santa Fe, New Mexico. The ATSF reached Albuquerque in 1880, after a serious controversy with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad known as the 'Royal Gorge Railroad War' that had to be settled by federal authorities and creating real estate offices to sell off the land granted to them across Kansas for settlers to make the route economically viable. Santa Fe, the original destination, was eventually reached by a spur branch of the railway from Lamy, New Mexico. Eventually, when the ATSF connected with the Southern Pacific at Deming, New Mexico, it completed the second transcontinental railroad route. In 1897, when the ATSF traded a railroad line in Mexico with the Southern Pacific for its line from Needles to Barstow, the ATSF became the first railroad in the United States to own its own line from Chicago to the Pacific coast. The ATSF merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1995, creating the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Raolroad (BNSF) which still operates today.

This map was produced by the Montross and Clarke Company in 1926.