Riding a coach was a challenge. Rafael Pumpelly was a travel writer who hitched a ride on the Butterfield Overland Mail Line traveling cross country...
The Romance of the Stage Line?
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Wagons
Ride ‘Em Cowboy, Wagons Ho and the Old West
While watching some old Westerns, I saw wagon bosses and/or military commanders call out “Forward ho!!” to get the group moving. Was that accurate?...
Wyatt Earp, Wagons and Wild Women
What is your opinion of Stuart Lake’s Wyatt Earp biography Frontier Marshal? Josh Taylor Austin, Texas Much of Lake’s book comes from the fertile...
Mules, Levi’s and Chuckwagons
Can horses really run themselves to death? Marie Johnson (Dallas, Texas) Horses can run themselves to death even without a rider. A...
Tumbleweed Wagons
They called them “tumbleweed wagons” because like their namesake, the Russian thistle, they seemed to wander aimlessly across the territory picking...
Circle the Wagons!
Emanuel Leutze’s 1863 oil Indians Attacking a Wagon Train vividly captured and perpetuated the fears of Americans migrating West on the Overland...
Greenhorns on the Santa Fe Trail
By 1824 the Santa Fe trade was in full swing. Joshua Gregg, in his classic tome, Commerce of the Prairies, described some of the action as he...
Wagons West
The wagon trains first began heading west in the early 1820s with the opening of the Santa Fe Trail from St. Louis. However, the emigrant trains to...
The Oregon Trail: Part 3
As traffic on the Oregon Trail increased, a bustling industry of frontier trading posts sprang up to supply food and equipment for the five-month...
The Oregon Trail: Part 2
Most wagons were about six feet wide and twelve feet long. They were usually made of seasoned hardwood and covered with a large, oiled canvas...
True Grit
Eighteen-year-old Susan Magoffin traveled West with her lady’s maid on the Santa Fe Trail. Susan Shelby Magoffin was an unlikely traveler when she...
Stagecoaches and Horse Teams
Normally a stagecoach was pulled by what was known as a 6-up hitch. Less common was a 4-up or four horses. The wheel team on a 6-up, those at the...