Greetings ~
Today we have all forms of public transportation. Airplanes, trains, buses, ships, even taxi cabs. But there was a time when the general public only had a very few ways of traveling. Ships, trains and the stagecoach.
The stagecoach was a vehicle made of wood and metal. It was pulled by teams of four to six horses and was used mostly in the western states of America between the years 1840 to 1905. The western stagecoach was the most popular and it the vehicle most remembered today.
Stagecoach travel was bumpy, rough, dusty and dirty. The coaches had no window glass and the only way to keep rain and dust out was to close the flaps on the outside of the windows. However, this created a hot box inside.
Two men rode on the upper front seat. The driver and the coach guard who, in most cases, carried a 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun for protection against robbers and Indian attacks. The top of the coach was a luggage rack for the passengers and the rear had a compartment for carrying freight going from town to town. Also mail bags and cash boxes rode on the stagecoaches and the cash box was kept under the driver's seat.
Stagecoach drivers had a hard, physical job. The driver's seat was just a wooden plank with a thin padding. There were no springs to the seat and the drivers rode for a few hundred miles in some cases. Six horses were not easy to control. The drivers had to hold onto 12-ranes in their hands. The horses kicked up large amounts of dust and dirt along the trails. It was no wonder that drivers worked for a few years and most sought other employment later on. Rattlesnakes and other small critters were always a threat of spooking the horses where the driver would loose control of them. Rocks and ditches and potholes were rough on stagecoaches and things like buried tree roots could result in a horrid accident. Low hung tree branches were something to watch out for as well.
Robberies by outlaws were a common threat. But not as common as the Hollywood westerns would have us believe. Stagecoach robberies were committed by lesser known outlaws looking for a quick easy payoff. The James gang and other better known outlaws robbed banks and trains. Cash carried aboard stagecoaches was around a few hundred dollars to a few thousand.
Wells Fargo and Company Overland Express was the main stagecoach operators in the old west. But there were many companies that ran coaches. Many of these would go broke and only be in existence for a few years. By 1907, old abandoned stagecoaches dotted the prairies, fields and towns of the old west. Many rotted and were used by locals for firewood.
In 1939 Hollywood director, John Ford made a movie called simply, "Stagecoach". It starred John Wayne, Claire Trevor, John Carradine and Andy Devine. This film showed the stagecoach in all it's glory. The action scenes were highly praised.
This blog is made up of vintage photographs of old stagecoaches in their original settings. The blog I dedicate to the drivers and shotgun riders who braved the elements including robbers and Indians just to get their passengers and cargo from point A to point B safely. Whatever happened to men like them?