John Carr, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Our Rhodesian Heritage: How "Wild West" coaches opened up Rhodesia", Sherman & Smiths Railroad, Steam boat & Stage route map of New England, New-York, and Canada, The Overland Trail:Stage Coach Vocabulary- Last Updated 19 April 1998, Stagecoach Westward - Frontier Travel, Expansion, United States, Stagecoach History: Stage Lines to California, Wild West Tales: Stories by R. Michael Wilson; Stagecoach, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stagecoach&oldid=1152177018, This page was last edited on 28 April 2023, at 17:43. Along the many stage routes, stations were established about every 12 miles that included two types of stations swing and home. As the stage driver neared the station, he or she would blow a small brass bugle or trumpet to alert the station staff of the impending arrival. Travel time was reduced on this later run from three days to two in 1766 with an improved coach called the Flying Machine. Organised long-distance land travel became known as staging[1] or posting. How many horses usually pulled a stagecoach? In 1862, the company built Oregon's first railroad, a five-mile portage line between Bonneville and Cascade Locks, to connect with steamships above and below an unnavigable portion of the river. Pony stations were generally located between 5 to 20 miles apart. Stations were attacked and the horses stolen, the stations burned and keepers killed, especially during the Pauite Indian War starting in May 1860. His patent lasted 14 years delaying development because Elliott allowed no others to license and use his patent. This road went over mountains, through deserts, and along dugways, often hundreds of feet above the bottom of canyons" (Waite). Many interesting incidents connected with his father's life in the early days are fresh in the merchant's memory. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Other owners would take more enthusiastic suitably-dressed passengers and indulge in competitive driving. And so, they were left dangling in the air to pay the penalty of the daring life led by the frontier outlaw. A stage moved at a fair gait, depending on the terrain, of course we're talking dirt paths, and an unpaved road, at best. The coaches hang by leather straps to take away some of the bounce. The Horses Pulling a Stage. Horses were changed out at each Stagecoach Stop, which were a minimum of 10 miles apart. Feet are interlacing, heads severely bumped, Friend and foe together get their noses thumped; Dresses act as carpets-listen to the sage; Life is but a journey taken in a stage.. No shampoo, either Shutterstock And a stage could carry more people, providing the rider was willing to cling to the railings amid luggage lashed to the top. Through metonymy the name stage also came to be used for a stagecoach alone. Or any of a hundred other things we take for granted in the United States today. In the end, it was the motor bus, not the train, that caused the final disuse of these horse-drawn vehicles. Stagecoach travel was by Concord coach, a closed vehicle with passengers facing each other inside the cab, drawn by six horses. Almost 100,000 passengers used the Oregon Steam Navigation company's steamboats between 1861 and 1864. At this speed stagecoaches could compete with canal boats, but they were rendered obsolete in Europe wherever the rail network expanded in the 19th century. They shackled the sheriff and lined the passengers up in the road. Six horses are typical, but stages used for shorter routes might only use four. The stagecoach was a closed four-wheeled vehicle drawn by horses or hard-going mules. Designed by the Abbot Downing Company, the coach utilized leather strap braces underneath, giving them a swinging motion instead of a spring suspension, which jostled passengers up and down. In 1861, riders traversed the westward. Each driver's division was 50 miles long. Walla Walla was connected to Wallula, a port on the Columbia River, by wagon road and later by narrow gauge railroad. Stage is the space between the places known as stations or stops known to Europeans as posts or relays. They included: "The best seat is the one next to the driver. Five miles east of Holloways was Edward's Store (Sec. Stations were added or deleted when necessary. Another stagecoach "Relay" station. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. Three months later, by messenger, the returned the mules they had "borrowed.". In 1878, the company acquired control of the Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad Company, which operated several small railroads along the Columbia River, including a narrow-gauge line, running from Wallula on the Columbia River to Walla Walla, 45 miles east, which had been built in 1872. Some owners would parade their vehicles and magnificently dressed passengers in fashionable locations. 3, T. 7 S., R. 8 #.) When the coach halted at Spring Creek for the customary watering of the mules, one of the prisoners slipped a shackle. He met resistance from officials who believed that the existing system could not be improved, but eventually the Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Pitt, allowed him to carry out an experimental run between Bristol and London. While horses were plentiful in that section, he, nevertheless, found it no easy matter to pick one up. From: Six Horses by Captain William Banning & George Hugh Banning, 1928. The Overland Trail:Stage Coach Vocabulary- Last Updated 19 April 1998, Stagecoach History: Stage Lines to California, Wild West Tales: Stories by R. Michael Wilson; Stagecoach, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stage_station&oldid=1115595755, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. skin stops bones from moving away. Theodore Cardwell Barker, Dorian Gerhold. Designed by the Abbot Downing Company, the coach utilized leather strap braces underneath, giving them a swinging motion instead of a spring suspension, which jostled passengers up and down. Individually mounted riders are subject to their personal endurance limits. Concords, by far the most popular model, fit nine in the passenger compartment and as many can hold on up top. The first mail coaches appeared in the later 18th century carrying passengers and the mails, replacing the earlier post riders on the main roads. The colony of Rehovot is known to have promulgated detailed regulations for stagecoach operation, soon after its foundation in 1890, which were greatly extended in 1911. Feed had to be hauled, in some cases, hundreds of miles, all at a heavy expense, and, as the country produced nothing then, provisions were hauled by wagons from the Missouri River, Utah, and California. The buildings were erected by standing small longs on end, using clay to fill in the interstices, which made a strong, durable wall. But I wish the circumstances that led me to that decision never existed. His coach had a greatly improved turning capacity and braking system, and a novel feature that prevented the wheels from falling off while the coach was in motion. The Painful Truth About Stagecoach Travel In The Old West. Studded with 153 stations, the Pony Express trail used 80 riders and between 400 and 500 horses to carry mail from the settled Midwest to the new state of California. The rear doors were secured by a heavy log, which was chained and locked. A. Three times a day, passengers could get a hurried meal. [9] Another writer, however, argued that: Besides the excellent arrangement of conveying men and letters on horseback, there is of late such an admirable commodiousness, both for men and women, to travel from London to the principal towns in the country, that the like hath not been known in the world, and that is by stage-coaches, wherein any one may be transported to any place, sheltered from foul weather and foul ways; free from endamaging of one's health and one's body by the hard jogging or over-violent motion; and this not only at a low price (about a shilling for every five miles [8km]) but with such velocity and speed in one hour, as that the posts in some foreign countries make in a day. Then the former prisoners relieved the passengers of all their valuables and order the driver to select the bet mules for their mount. The coffee and the tea were peculiar to the country. In France, between 1765 and 1780, the turgotines, big mail coaches named for their originator, Louis XVI's economist minister Turgot, and improved roads, where a coach could travel at full gallop across levels, combined with more staging posts at shorter intervals, cut the time required to travel across the country sometimes by half.[19]. In the beginning, the relay rider stations were set approximately 20-25 miles apart, but later, more relay rider stations were established at shorter intervals, about 12-15 miles apart. People's Histories include personal memoirs and reminiscences, letters and other historical documents, interviews and oral histories, reprints from historical and current publications, original essays, commentary and interpretation, and expressions of personal opinion, many of which have been submitted by our visitors. The feed problem at each station required long hours of toil by men hardened to all conditions of weather and living. Donec gravida mi a condimentum rutrum. Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated February 2023. The driver sat on a seat below the roof, which had a luggage rack. The fabled Pony Express of the American West is the most famous horse-based relay system, but it was not the first, the largest, or the most successful. Often braving terrible weather, pitted roads, treacherous terrain, and Indian and bandit attacks, the stagecoach lines valiantly carried on during westward expansion, despite the hazards. [12], The posting system provided horses for riding their routes (after about 1820 riding was no faster than a stagecoach) and for drawing private carriages and sometimes hired out post chaises, lighter and more comfortable closed carriages with a postilion riding one of the horses in place of a coachman. Stagecoaches, often known by the French name "Diligence" - a smaller model with room for six passengers and a bigger one for ten, drawn by two horses (in the city, on the plain or on a good road) or three (on intercity and elevated roads) - were the main means of public transportation in Ottoman Palestine between the middle of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Through years of experience on the frontier, he had learned that it was useless to try to get the better of an outlaw; so instead of meting them with their own weapons, he submitted courteously, and in this instance, treated them so amicably that they gave him back his watch and $14 in money. It existed only briefly from 1858 to 1861 and ran from Memphis, Tennesse - or St. Louis, Missouri - to San Francisco. Its characteristic layout beyond the central coach entrance from the Market Square has a long enclosed rear courtyard, old stables and another entrance to the rear. [8] A string of coaching inns operated as stopping points for travellers on the route between London and Liverpool. A driver drove six horses which were changed every 10 or 12 miles. Coachmen carried letters, packages and money, often transacting business or delivering messages for their customers. Abbot Downing Company employed leather strap braces under their stagecoaches which gave a swinging motion instead of the jolting up and down of a spring suspension. Stagecoach horse chase This robbery placed the stage company at great disadvantage, for mules of the regulation type were hard to get. The first crude depiction of a coach was in an English manuscript from the 13th century. If passengers wanted to sleep, they were required to do so sitting up, and it was considered bad etiquette to rest ones head on another passenger. Stagecoach Stations on the old Butterfield Overland Mail that ran from Tipton, Missouri to San Francisco between 1858 and 1861 left a lot to be desired. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". This new line connected the Pacific Northwest to the rest of the country by railroad. The speed of coaches in this period rose from around 6 miles per hour (9.7km/h) (including stops for provisioning) to 8 miles per hour (13km/h)[15] and greatly increased the level of mobility in the country, both for people and for mail. If you are disappointed, thank heaven" (Osburn et al., 30). Pony Express Route by William Henry Jackson, 1860, Division One St. Joseph, Missouri to Fort Kearny, Nebraska, Division Two Fort Kearny, Nebraska to Horseshoe Creek, Wyoming, Division Three Horseshoe Creek, Wyoming to Salt Lake City, Utah, Division Four- Salt Lake City, Utah to Roberts Creek, Nevada, Division Five Roberts Creek, Nevada to San Francisco, California, The original Pony Express Stables in St. Joseph, Missouri, now serves as a museum. How far apart were stage relay stations? "When the driver asks you to get off and walk, do it without grumbling. Stage is the space between the places known as stations or stopsknown to Europeans as posts or relays. "Never ride in cold weather with tight boots or shoes, nor close fitting gloves. Lighter faster and better-bred horses were used as the road surfaces smoothed and heavy mud-slogging could be forgotten. Request your refund. [4] Unless a return hire was anticipated a postilion of a spent team was responsible for returning them to the originating post house. By Grace Raymond Hebard and Earl Alonzo Brininstool 1922, with additional edits/information by Legends Of America. The Pony Express operation was divided into five operating divisions. Goods were taken by wagon, and later by railroad, from Wallula to Walla Walla. Swollen streams were the greatest barriers in those days of travel. In 1884, the Union Pacific Railroad completed the Oregon Short Line, which left U.P. Mountain Stagecoach by Rey Britton and Company, Adventures & Tragedies on the Overland Trail, John Butterfield & the Overland Mail Company, Canyon Station Treasure Near Kingman, Arizona, Cowboys, Trail Blazers, & Stagecoach Drivers List, Clark Old Chieftain Foss Boisterous California Stage Driver, George Baldy Green A Popular Stage Driver, A Journey to Denver via the Butterfield Overland Dispatch, Knights of the Lash: Old-Time Stage Drivers of the West Coast, Delia Haskett Rawson Carrying the U.S. Mail, Russell, Majors & Waddell Transportation in the Old West, Virginia Dale, Colorado Stage Station Treasure, Wells Fargo Staging & Banking in the Old West. [12], The period from 1800 to 1830 saw great improvements in the design of coaches, most notably by John Besant in 1792 and 1795. Stagecoach with a guard sitting on top, protecting whatever wealth it mighthave been carrying. Around twenty years later in 1880 John Pleasant Gray recorded after travelling from Tucson to Tombstone on J.D. "Butterfields men were rough tough frontiersman as no other men could handle the hardships that Butterfield would put them through. They may have simply been someones house who was willing to barter or sell water, food and/or goods to travelers.). You can't change your ticket but you can request a refund and buy a new one. "Drive off with your wagon." Next morning the young driver, who had slept soundly throughout the night, secure in the feeling that every precaution had been taken for the safety of his valued team, awoke to find it gone. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. I have eaten dinner at a home station when the meat was never more ambitious than bacon. [7], In 1754, a Manchester-based company began a new service called the "Flying Coach". "It was the wonderfully rich traffic which appeared with the discovery of the Salmon river mines that enabled the steamboats on the Lewiston-Cielo run to make records for money-making that have never been equaled. BOX 236 POLLOCK PINES, CA 95726. Spent horses were replaced with fresh horses at stage stations, posts, or relays. They have not been verified by HistoryLink.org and do not necessarily represent its views. The stages stopped forty minutes at the home stations and about five minutes at the other stations, time enough to change horses or teams" (Donaldson). Very similar in design to stagecoaches their vehicles were lighter and sportier. In 1864, Holladay obtained a contract to carry mail from Salt Lake to the Dalles, Oregon, via Boise City in Idaho Territory and Walla Walla and Wallula in Washington Territory, a distance of 675 miles. Hollenberg, Kansas Pony Express Station by Kathy Alexander. how far apart were stagecoach relay stations By 1836 the scheduled coach left London at 19:30, travelled through the night (without lights) and arrived in Liverpool at 16:50 the next day, a distance of about 220 miles (350km), doubling the overall average speed to about 10 miles per hour (16km/h), including stops to change horses.[5]. Ah, the Old West, when men were men and women were women and you could tell the hero from the villain by the color of the hats. It turned out to be a great decision in the long run. Until the late 18th century, stagecoaches traveled at an average speed of about 5 miles per hour (8km/h), with the average daily mileage traversed approximately 60 to 70 miles (97 to 113km),[4]. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are drawn by six horses. Stagecoaches, post chaises, private vehicles, individual riders and the like followed the already long-established system for messengers, couriers and letter-carriers. Concord stages could carry seven passengers, mail, and feed for the horses. For this distinguished guest, the road between Jaffa and Jerusalem was greatly improved, making possible the passage of carriages. Two minutes was allotted for horse and mochila exchanges at each station. The railroad was a money maker from the start. [3] Post-horses would be hired from a postmaster at a post house. He hitched the pony to a rickety buckboard, placed a trusted man on the seat, and started him down the trail with the first mail. [ 4] Relay rider stations normally had a single caretaker for the horses. Wells Fargo ordered the factory's largest stagecoach model capable of seating nine passengers inside reinforced with extra iron hardware for use on rough western roads and painted bright red with yellow wheels and running gear. In London in the 1830s the three largest coach masters provided 80 per cent of the horses for the 342 services each week. The mail pouches were missing and although the latter were found, following a persistent six-month's search, the indecent of the missing driver and passengers has never been solved, and remains one among many of the early day mysteries. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. A long journey was much faster with no delay to rest horses. Station names often varied between authors and historians, and many stations had different names at any given time. This town today is one of those passed through on the Fort Elliott trail, now a modern highway, leading out of Elk City, Oklahoma. Joseph Ballard described the stagecoach service between Manchester and Liverpool in 1815 as having price competition between coaches, with timely service and clean accommodations at inns. The yard of ale drinking glass is associated by legend with stagecoach drivers, though it was mainly used for drinking feats and special toasts.[2][3]. Upon the roof, on the outside, is the imperial, which is generally filled with six or seven persons more, and a heap of luggage, which latter also occupies the basket, and generally presents a pile, half as high again as the coach, which is secured by ropes and chains, tightened by a large iron windlass, which also constitutes another appendage of this moving mass. They came to be known as road coaches and were used by their enterprising (or nostalgic) owners to provide scheduled passenger services where rail had not yet reached and also on certain routes at certain times of the year for the pleasure of an (often amateur) coachman and his daring passengers. He received $1,800,000 for the Overland Stage Line, an enormous sum in those days. Compiled by Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated June 2022. Relay rider stations usually had a single caretaker for the horses. Marshals would vigorously pursue anyone who robbed the mail. Coachmen carried letters, packages, and money, often transacting business or delivering messages for their customers. Don't ask how far it is to the next station until you get there. The Overland Trail, also known as the Overland Stage Line, was a stagecoach and wagon road in the American West. 1, T. 3 S., R 9 #), 10 miles south and west of Atoka, Atoka County, and about 4 miles south of present bridge (west end) across Clary Boggy River. The sheriff was sitting outside with Todd. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Mmoires du Duc de Rovigo, vol. Maximum efficiency was a priority. He spent the remained of his life on his allotment. by stagecoach or wagon train How far did a stagecoach travel in a day? Relay rider stations usually had a single caretaker for the horses. 8 How long were stagecoaches used? With completion of the rail lines to Wallula it was found impossible for the steamboats to compete with the railroads in the carrying trade" (Strahorn, 336). The coaches, each equipped to carry nine passengers with baggage, and each drawn by six sturdy young mules, started from each end of the line every second day, the route being divided into four separate drives. How far apart were stagecoach stops? "The 'home' stations were houses built of logs and usually occupied by families. Stagecoaches carried small parcels like samples and patterns and bundles of bank notes. There were only hurried intervals at stations to change the horse. A total of around 200 manned relay stations were established, over 1500 animals plus feed, 800 or so workers and 250 coaches were acquired to support the endeavor. [10] By 1797 there were forty-two routes. Weddell's Station (Secs. The average distance between them was about 160 miles. The first division ran from St. Joseph, MissouritoFort Kearny, Nebraska; the second division from Fort Kearny to Horseshoe Station (above Fort Laramie), Wyoming; the third from Horseshoe Station to Salt Lake City, Utah; the fourth from Salt Lake City to Roberts Creek, Nevada; and the fifth division, from Roberts Creek to Sacramento, California. This way each driver and conductor became intimately familiar with his section of trail. Stagecoach Stations. Still later steam vessels and some canal boats could provide stagecoach speeds at much lower prices. Wallula was a major steamboat port and later an important junction for the Oregon Railroad and Navigation and Northern Pacific railroads. A simplified and lightened vehicle known as a stage wagon, mud-coach, or mud-wagon, was used in the United States under difficult conditions. His coach first made the trip from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island, on May 13, 1718, and in doing so began a system of travel which would endure for nearly 200 years. It consisted of a sole-leather, lard-soaked crust, half baked, with a thin veneer of dried apples daubed with brown sugar. In addition to the stage driver or coachman who guided the vehicle, a shotgun messenger armed with a coach gun might travel as a guard beside him. The town spread across a part of his homestead. Here, the coach would stop for about ten minutes to change the team and allow passengers to stretch before the coach was on its way again. These owners were (often very expert) amateur gentlemen-coachmen, occasionally gentlewomen. William Shakespeare's first plays were performed at coaching inns such as The George Inn, Southwark. 1 (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2008); Thornton Waite, Get Off and Push: The Story of the Gilmore and Pittsburgh Railroad (Columbia, Missouri: Breuggenjohann/Reese, Inc., 2002). They took businessmen about their business which could now be conducted in person without agents. Post came to be applied to the riders then to the mail they carried and eventually to the whole system. The stages kept on day and night, and so of course, the drivers had both daylight and darkness. [21], The stagecoach lines in the USA were operated by private companies. After considerable parleying with one after another of the citizens of the frontier settlement, he bought a little broncho from a German shoe cobbler, for which he paid $30. 12:30 PM - Amethyst Kiah. Medieval couriers were caballari postarus or riders of the posts. After the 2018 season, I walked away for family reasons. This was followed by a steady proliferation of other routes around the island. By the end of the 17th century stagecoach routes ran up and down the three main roads in England. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. This was John Butterfield's time schedule that set the goal for the time of arrival at each "timetable" station. The terrain and its effect on horse travel determined the number and the distance between stations. STAGECOACH TRAVEL. Place of rest provided for stagecoach travelers. The English visitor noted the small, sturdy Norman horses "running away with our cumbrous machine, at the rate of six or seven miles an hour". Fares were fixed, ranging between 1.10 Grush for traveling to the nearby village of Wadi Hanin and 5.00 Grush for traveling from Rehovot to Jaffa. Shakespeare's first plays were performed at coaching inns such as The George Inn, Southwark. The three outlaws died game, one of them shouting to the vast crowd. When any old "sly Eph," who traveled thousands of miles on coaches, offers through sympathy to exchange his back or middle seat with you, don't do it. Their most profitable contracts were with U.S. Mail and were hotly contested. Over the years, the New Hampshire-based company manufactured over 40 types of carriages and wagons, earning a reputation that their coaches rarely broke down; instead, they just wore out. The coaches weighed more than a ton and cost between $1500 and $1800. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Building materials generally consisted of sod on the plains, timber in the forested areas, stone or adobe on the deserts or dugouts carved in a hillside and roofed with freighted-in timber. 24-25, T. 4 N., R 17 E ) about 3 miles southwest of Higgins, in Latimer County. He was a member of the third Territorial Legislature and the author of the Herd Law. For financial stability ownership moved to a few major innkeepers. There were no overnight stops and the stage traveled at what was then breakneck speeds - for 24 hours a day. 2:40 PM - Charley Crockett. [12], Innkeepers were involved from the start. They carried "way pockets" into which settlers deposited letters. The roofs were made of heavy ridgepoles, to which were attached other pole rafters, all covered with brush and coarse grass. They took over the business of carrying mail (proving as fast and reliable yet cheaper than couriers or mail carriers) and newspapers. Stagecoaches were a great improvement over the earlier means of transport used in the country, such as riding horses, donkeys or camels, or light carts drawn by donkeys. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Passengers were appalled by the dirt and squalor that greeted them at the station. In addition to a carriage's obvious advantages (a degree of safety and shelter for the inside passengers and accessibility to non-riders) on long trips it tended to be the most rapid form of passenger travel.[2]. In the summer, or near the close of it, haying outfits, with four or five men, were sent down the line to cut and stack prairie hay for use as rough forage for the teams through the year. . Stage stations were built every 15-20 miles. 6 How far apart were stagecoach relay stations? Every stagecoach route in Texas stretched along a series of stopping points where drivers could hitch on a fresh team in 10 minutes and be on their way again.
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