1948 Pikes Peak Auto Highway Souvenir Toll Ticket PIK-L48
Brief Description
This is the ticket that never made it here. This one was ‘lost in the mail’. Luckily, we do have good photos of it. This is a rare ticket because this batch of tickets was likely only used for one season, if that.
Info
- Date: 1948
- Size: Unknown
- ID: PIK-L48
- Acquisition Date: Purchased Jan 2025
- Repository: Coloradotopia Archives
Seller photographs.
Image use restricted.
Image Dating Comments
This ticket has been dated by association. This ticket was paired with a Cheyenne Mountain souvenir toll ticket that had a date stamp of June 30, 1948, on the back.
The seller acquired these from a family friend who recently passed away. They stated that these were souvenirs from a trip to Colorado, so it is presumed that the date of 1948 is accurate for this unstamped Pikes Peak ticket.
Comments & Discussion
As mentioned, this ticket never made it to the archives. It was lost before even getting to the post office… a sad affair, but the main purpose of acquiring the ticket is to document the history of these tickets, so the photos are still extremely useful.
The toll road was managed by the US Forest Service up through 1947. The City of Colorado Springs took over in 1948. This archive has a toll road ticket from 1949 that can be seen here. This paints a picture where these tickets were likely used when the city took over the road, but they had been replaced by August of the next year. This is the only one like this that I have ever seen or heard about thus far.
Condition, Aging & Authenticity: While this ticket is not held in the archives, there is enough detail visible here to conclude that it was likely genuine and likely from 1948. That underlying pattern in the paper is similar to other authenticity features that were used during this era around the Pikes Peak region.
About the Coloradotopia Archives Collection. 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 collection here.
