The stagecoach was the travel wonder of its age: passengers could board a fast coach and be shuttled from one end of the country to the other, stopping only in stages to hitch up fresh horses and take a little light refreshment at coaching inns. Though coaches first appeared in the sixteenth century, stagecoach travel reached its heyday between about 1750 and 1850, leading to great improvements in British roads, which in return encouraged faster and expanded services. This book details the routes, proprietors and coaching inns, the customers and why they chose to travel, and also the perils of early road travel, including highwaymen. The legacy of stagecoach travel is also explored, making this an essential introduction.

Schwantes gathers historical photos, advertisements, posters, and contemporary accounts to recreate one of the most colorful periods in the American West. 255 illustrations, 40 in color.

New England stagemen followed thousands of bedazzled gold rushers out west in 1849, carving out the first public overland transportation routes in California. Daring drivers like Hank Monk navigated treacherous terrain, while entrepreneurs such as James Birch, Jared Crandall and Louis McLane founded stagecoach companies traveling from Stockton to the Oregon border and over the formidable Sierra Nevada. Stagecoaches hauling gold from isolated mines to big-city safes were easy targets for highwaymen like Black Bart. Road accidents could end in disaster--coaches even tumbled down mountainsides. Journey back with author Cheryl Anne Stapp to an era before the railroad and automobile arrived and discover the wild history of stagecoach travel in California.

This book explores the history of travelling by stagecoach from the sixteenth century through to the end of the nineteenth century, focusing on the heyday of around 1750-1850. It looks at the improvements in road maintenance and the turnpike system, which made faster travel practical and thereby led to a great increase in the use of stagecoaches, which would shuttle people along main routes from city to city (for example, the Great North Road from London to Edinburgh), stopping only to hitch a new set of horses to the stagecoach at designated refreshment areas. It explains who might travel in this way and why, and also shows the streamlining of the postal system through mail coaches, which would also carry passengers, The main routes, operators and infrastructure are explored, including the coaching inns that remain in so many towns today. Also explored are the practicalities of travelling, the dangers from Highwaymen such as Dick Turpin and the reasons for the decline of coaching - mainly the rise of railways.

Sweeping in scope, as revealing of an era as it is of a company, Stagecoach is the epic story of Wells Fargo and the American West, by award-winning writer Philip L. Fradkin. The trail of Wells Fargo runs through nearly every imaginable landscape and icon of frontier folklore: the California Gold Rush, the Pony Express, the transcontinental railroad, the Civil and Indian Wars. From the Great Plains to the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, the company's operations embraced almost all social, cultural, and economic activities west of the Mississippi, following one of the greatest migrations in American history. Fortune seekers arriving in California after the discovery of gold in 1849 couldn't bring the necessities of home with them. So Wells Fargo express offices began providing basic services such as the exchange of gold dust for coin, short-term deposits and loans, and reliable delivery and receipt of letters, money, and goods to and from distant places. As its reputation for speed and dependability grew, the sight of a red-and-yellow Wells Fargo stagecoach racing across the prairie came to symbolize not only safe passage but faith in a nation's progress. In fact, for a time Wells Fargo was the most powerful and widespread institution in the American West, even surpassing the presence of the federal government. Stagecoach is a fascinating and rare combination of Western and business history. Along with its colorful association with the frontier -- Wyatt Earp, Black Bart, Buffalo Bill -- readers will discover that swiftness, security, and connectivity have been constants in Wells Fargo's history, and that these themes remain just as important today, 150 years later.

Recounts the history of the stagecoach in America from the early days of the Republic to the westward expansion, using illustrations, historical documents, maps, and fictional diary entries.

Stagecoach West is a comprehensive history of stagecoaching west of the Missouri. Starting with the evolution of overland passenger transportation, Moody moves on to paint a lively and informative picture of western stagecoaching, from its early short runs through its rise with the gold rush, its zenith of 1858–68, and beyond. Its story is one of grand rivalries, political chicanery, and gaudy publicity stunts, traders, fortune hunters, outlaws, courageous drivers, and indefatigable detectives. We meet colorful characters such as Charlie Parkhurst, a stagecoach driver who took an amazing secret to his death: “he” was actually a woman. Using contemporary accounts, illustrations, maps, and photographs to flesh out his narrative, Moody creates one of the most important accounts of transportation history to date.