246. WYOMING IMPROVEMENT COMPANY.  Wyoming, the Pennsylvania of the West. Railroads Now Opening up This Wonderful Territory. A Fertile Agricultural Country. Fifteen Thousand Square Miles of Rich Oil Fields....Bessemer, A Great Railroad, Manufacturing, and Industrial Centre Just Starting Up.....  Geneva, Nebraska:  Published by Wyoming Improvement Company, C. Shickley, Secretary, n.d. [ca. 1888].  28, [4] pp. Laid in (probably as issued):  (1)  Printed letter from Shickley on stationery of Wyoming Improvement Company touting the pamphlet; (2) map outlined in green, proposed and existing railroad routes in red: Map of Wyoming, 1888, accompanying “Resources of Wyoming.” Published by Wyoming Improvement Co., Geneva Nebraska [below neat line] Rand, McNally & Co....Copyright 1888.... 42 x 57.3 cm; (3) uncolored town plan:  Bessemer, Carbon County, Wyoming.  The Gateway to the Pacific. The Future Metropolis, Great Manufacturing City and Capital of Wyoming...[blurb on Yellowstone at left].  32.5 x 53.3 cm.  8vo, original grey pictorial wrappers illustrating majestic Wyoming scenery, stapled as issued (spine neatly replaced with sympathetic paper).  Wrappers waterstained and moderately chipped (not costing any letters or touching images), occasional spotting to text and maps.  Uncommon.

     First edition.  Decker 22:471.  Although supposedly promoting the entirety of Wyoming, this publication in fact is mostly a promotional for the proposed town of Bessemer, which failed to prosper and is now a ghost town.  The majority of the pamphlet promotes the mineral and oil resources of the Territory.  Some ads at the rear include maps. ($750-1,500)

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