1920 Pikes Peak Auto Highway Stamped Souvenir Toll Ticket #PIK-10575
Brief Description
This Pikes Peak souvenir toll road ticket has a stamp on the back, indicating that someone made the trip to the top via automobile and acquired this. However, there is no name written on the front. This is not uncommon for used tickets from this era.
Info
- Date: July 10, 1920
- Size: 4 1/8" x 2 5/8"
- ID: PIK-10575
- Acquisition Date: Oct. 2024
- Repository: Coloradotopia Archives
Scanned, no color corrections.
Image use restricted.
Image Dating Comments
The stamp on the back, which shows the full date, was double stamped, with the second stamp being offset slightly from the first. This makes it harder to read the date accurately. It may look like a 1928 stamp, and the ticket was purchased with the sale label ‘1928’, however, a close look at the offset nature of the overlying stamps reveals that the date stamp is not July 18, 1928, but rather, it is July 10, 1920.
Comments & Discussion
The modern toll road on Pikes Peak was built in 1915, so this ticket and the batch that it came from would have been one of the earliest that were used at Pikes Peak.
Frederick C. Mathews’s name can be seen scrolled across the bottom of the ticket as the traffic manager of the highway.
He was also a general passenger agent for Midland Railway as late as 1918.1 The words ‘Office of Gen. Pass. Agt.’ can be seen across the center of the stamp. It is possible that Mathews brought the stamp that was used here over from the railroad himself to be used on the toll road.
Condition, Aging & Authenticity: The upper corners are both ripped, but this ticket still has a solid yellow overall color. The date stamp appears to show genuine fading, but most of it is still easily readable.
About the Coloradotopia Archives. The Coloradotopia archives hold a large collection of historical images and items that document Colorado’s automobile history in the mountains. You can read more about the Coloradotopia archive project here.
