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Show HOWARD R. DRIGGS ACCEPTS MAP . ' ' ' , f V i pi , i, - . v : - . . I early experiences in the cattle country coun-try at Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Ogden, Og-den, Utah. He is also the author of two books of poems, "Cowboy Stuff" and "Cattle Tales," the first of which has been published in a deluxe de-luxe edition and the latter is now ready for the press. The last three years, beginning with the diamond . jubilee of the Pony Express in 1935, have been a period of special activity on the part of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association, As-sociation, especially in locating and marking the Pony Express Trail, from St. Joseph, Mo. to Sacramento, California. The association's annual meeting to be held August 21-23 at Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and the per- A map that is also a cyclorama of covered wagon and ox-team days and portrays the thrilling exploits of the old Pony Express first fast mail service to span the western half of the continent has been officially official-ly presented to the Oregon Trail Memorial Association and accepted by it as the authentic record of the pioneer period of 1860-1861. It was completed after nearly a decade of research by William H. Jackson, ninety-five years old, a noted artist and the association's research director. As bullwhacker and mule-driver of the period, later a Civil War and Geological Survey photographer and authority of the National Park Service, Mr. Jackson spent many of his early years along the Oregon, Mormon and Pony Express Ex-press trails and was a familiar of the pony riders and station keepers. The map was presented at a luncheon given at the Bankers Club, New York City, by F. W. Lafrentz, chairman of the board of the American Ameri-can Surety Company, in honor of Mr. Jackson. It was accepted by Dr. Howard R. Driggs, president of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association Associa-tion and professor of English education educa-tion at New York University, in the presence of a large gathering. While the historic value of the six-foot map lies in the minute location lo-cation of the stations and landmarks along the two thousand miles of Pony Express Trail, its appeal to the present generation is made through beautiful watercolor sketches sketch-es of the old scenes herds of buffalo, buf-falo, trains of covered wagons on the trek and in encampments, Indian Ind-ian villages and frontier forts, cattle fords across the rivers and rugged mountain passes beyond the plains. There are sketches, too, of the old six-guns and of the mochila containing the mail pouches, which was transferred to the saddle of each re-mount as the pony rider sprang upon a fresh horse and sped on his i way. The watercolor embellishments are in full color and minute detail. Dr. Driggs told guests at the Bankers Club luncheon that his association as-sociation had completed the marking and monumenting of nearly 200 historic his-toric "story spots" along the old trails, the object being to bring home to Americans the knowledge of their country and reverence for pioneer courage and sacrifice. Mr. Lafrentz, besides being a director di-rector of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association, attributes his keen interest in-terest in its program to his own iod will conclude with the observance, obser-vance, October 24, of the anniversary j of the first trans-continental telegraph, tele-graph, completed in 1861, when the wires from East to West met at Salt Lake City. Schools and historic and patriotic groups throughout the West are expected to join in the observance. Recently, Mr. Jackson's collection of original photographs, said to be the greatest in the United States, was purchased by Henry Ford, to be exhibited by him at Dearborn, Mich. |