|
| Title | Dakota Territory - The United States Mail Service on the Yellowstone Route During Winter |
| Date of Original | 1880-02-14 |
| Creator | Holtes, Charles
|
| Creator Role | Illustrator
|
| Description | Five separate images related to mail delivery on the Yellowstone Route during the winter. Route likely in North Dakota and Montana. |
| Ordering Information | Consult: http://library.ndsu.edu/ndsuarchives/duplication-services |
| General Subject | Weather
|
| Subject (LCTGM) | Snow
Winter
Stagecoaches
Railroad locomotives
Post offices
Fireplaces
Postal service
|
| Organization Name | United States. Post Office Dept.
|
| Location | Bismarck (N.D.)
North Dakota
Montana
United States
|
| Decade | 1880-1889
|
| Item Number | Folio 102.EnB45.4 |
| Format of Original | Lithographs
|
| Dimensions of Original | 17 x 11 |
| Publisher of Original | Frank Leslie's Publishing House
|
| Place of Publication | New York (N.Y.)
|
| Transcription | "A mail ranche on the Yellowstone, ' Lost in the snow, ' A letter from the states, ' From the states to Bismarck, ' and 'A frontier post office' - Captions below the five individual images.
The Yellowstone Mail Route in Winter. The present Winter has been an unusually severe one on the Plains, the snow falling to a remarkable depth and the thermometer indicating intense cold. Along the mail route of the Yellowstone the heavy snows have greatly interfered with the prompt delivery of mail matter, and imparted to the service a taste of the days of the 'forty-niners.' From Bismarck to a distance of nearly three hundred miles the country is very barren. Scattered along the route, at regular intervals, are mail ranches, where the stock of the mail-coaches is cared for and where letters are received and delivered. The drivers of the coaches are by no means gentlemen of ease. They are on the 'go' constantly; the severity of the weather guarantees no days of leisure for them. At any moment they are liable to be 'jumped' by hostile Indians, or halted by 'road agents' for the valuables intrusted to them. Scarcely a week passes without details of the robbery of a mail-coach, by Indians or other thieves, appearing in the papers. It not unfrequently happens that the drivers lose their way in the storms of wind and snow, and are in consequence compelled to camp out until the storm abates or they are able to discover their true route by the landmarks, with which they are familiar as the sailor with the North Star. To those of our readers who have opportunities for acquiring an insight of the manner of transporting the mails on the railroads and steamships our illustrations of the route of the Yellowstone will form an interesting study for comparison. Hard as is the work of the army of men employed in the fast railway mail service, few of them would exchange places with the drivers of the mail-coaches on the plains of the extreme West" - Article accompanying ill. |
| Notes | Title from piece.
'From sketches by Chas. Holtes.'
Ill. in: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Feb. 14, 1880, p. 444. |
| Repository Institution | North Dakota State University Libraries, Institute for Regional Studies
|
| Repository Collection | Dakota Lithographs and Engravings Collection Folio 102
|
| Collection Finding Aid | Consult: http://hdl.handle.net/10365/6673 |
| Credit Line | Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU, Fargo (Folio 102EnB45.4) |
| Rights Management | Image in public domain. |
| Language | eng; |
| Digital ID | rsL00123 |
| Original Source | Lithograph |
