Under normal conditions, how fast would a stagecoach move over flat country?

James Jackson

Doyle, California

A six-horse team pulling a Concord coach made their 15-mile run at an average speed of nine miles an hour.

In 1849, it took 166 days to travel coast to coast by stagecoach. By the 1860s, it took 60 days. A decade later, a train made the trip in 11 days. In 1923, an airplane did it in 26 hours, but by 1975, a plane traveled coast to coast in five hours. Today, the Space Shuttle does it in eight minutes.

Marshall Trimble is Arizona’s official historian.

His books include The Arizona Trilogy and Law of the Gun.

If you have a question, write:

Ask the Marshall, PO Box 8008, Cave Creek, AZ 85327

or e-mail him at marshall.trimble@sccmail.maricopa.edu