Lot
859 
Pritchard's Fast Freight Line, "From Palisade to Pioche, via Mineral Hill, Eureka & Hamilton" all-over shaded gray shaded ad cover on 3¢ green entire with printed Wells Fargo frank cancelled by sharp blue "Wells, Fargo & Co., Palisades, Apr 29" oval handstamp to San Francisco Cal., Very Fine and attractive. Estimate $400 - 600.
W.L. Pritchard started the Express Business in the late 1860s at Elko, Nevada. He moved to Palisade where he had more than 500 wagons and 2,000 animals hauling supplies as far south as Pioche via Mineral Hill, Eureka and Hamilton. With the coming of the Central Pacific Railroad, followed by the development of the White Pines Mines, as well as the Mineral Hill and Eureka districts; Palisade became a prominent rail head for the deposits of ore. Situated on the Humboldt River at the west end of Twelve Mile Canyon, about ten miles from Carlen, it was a very active town. Palisade gained a national reputation for staging fake gun battles and Indian attacks for the benefit of the Overland Limited Train, as it stopped there for refueling and water. The Eureka-Palisade railroad was completed in the early 1870s and Pritchard was forced to sell his stage and freight lines. Today it is practically a ghost town, and a junction of the Southern Pacific Railroad and Western Pacific Railroad and where the shops of the Eureka and Palisade Railroad once stood.
Realized: $525