Emigrants' Guide to Pike's Peak

Lucian Johnston Eastin (1814-1874), editor of the Kansas Weekly Herald, issued this guide as an advertising promotion for Leavenworth City. Aimed primarily at the gold prospector, this eight page publication in newspaper format contains a Map of the Gold Mines and Three Prominent Routes Leading Thereto,a Table of Distances for the three routes from point to point, gold news, descriptions of the country and its climate, information about camping grounds, wood and water, details and cost of a miner's outfit (all of which can be acquired, of course, at Leavenworth City), and a history of the city itself.

According to the advertising, at least 20,000 copies were subscribed for. They were sold for ten cents per hundred copies, plus postage. Eastin claimed that, "it is the cheapest work ever published. The map alone is worth the money." The map was devised by Major F. Hawn and O. B. Gunn, and engraved by Connor and Hussey of St Louis. This copy of the Guide is uncut, and is one of only two known surviving copies (the other is in the Western History Department of the Denvcr Public Library). The text has been reprinted in facsimile from the Denver copy by Dr. Nolic Mumey of Denver, with notes by LeRoy R. Hafen.