Wheels West 1590-1900

(Chicago: Rand McNally, 1977) 0528810472. 4to; original brown rexine, lettered in black on spine and with covered wagon device in black to upper board; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; pp. 208, incl. index; profusely illustrated, largely in monochrome, with contemporary photographs and artwork. Edges of dustwrapper a little curled; earlier owners' names to front pastedown; some foxing. Good to very good condition. "The settling of the American West was perhaps the greatest mass emigration in the history of the world, and it would have been impossible without wheeled transportation. This is the story that Richard Dunlop tells in WHEELS WEST, beginning with the arrival of the Spaniards in 1590 and ending with the final development of the railroads and the closing of the frontier in 1900. Here are the wagons, the trails, and the drivers - Western Americana at its most exciting ... As fascinating as Richard Dunlop's text are the more than 200 rare contemporary illustrations, among them dramatic photographs of Kit Carson in his early teens, before running off to join the Santa Fe caravans in the 1830s; extremely rare views of Custer's Black Hills expedition in the field that touched off the great Sioux uprising and led to the Little Big Horn a year later; the Deadwood stage, with its seven armed guards and a fortune in the boot, hell-bent for Cheyenne." .