Western Stagecoach Travel

  • Alaska's Gold Rush Trails Driving north from Copper Center, you reach Gakona, one of the most luxurious stops along the heavily traveled road from Valdez to Fairbanks and Eagle. After the road was improved for stagecoach travel in 1910, Gakona became a stop for the Orr Stage Co.
  • The American Local History Network Links to Stages and Trails.
  • The Bradshaw Trail The Gold Road to La Paz, or the Bradshaw Trail, unlike that taken in an earlier day by Spanish Conquistadors in their search for the Seven Cities of Cibola where the streets of Indian villages were supposedly paved with gold, led to millions of dollars in placer gold. During the last years of the Civil War, the trail was the only way in and out of southern California by stage. With the advent of the railroad, staging ceased in the 1880s, but the Bradshaw Trail remained a freight route.

    The Barlow-Sanderson Stage:

  • The Clifton House South of Raton, NM, this was a station for the Barlow-Sanderson Stage during the 1870's and 1880's
  • Sanderson's Overland Stage Company Mileage Chart from Junction City, Kansas to Santa Fe New Mexico, along the The Dry Route of the Santa Fe Trail
  • The Sapello Stage Station, NM The Sapello Stage Station, just southwest of Watrous, NM was used by the Barlow and Sanderson Stage Company.
  • The Butterfield Overland Mail and Stage Route

    California Stage Lines

  • Beale's Cut Also known as Fremont Pass and Newhall Pass, it was originally 30 feet deep when General Phineas Banning drove the first stagecoach through it in 1854. It was deepened to 90 feet by troops under General Edward F. Beale in 1863. This was the main roadway from Los Angeles to Newhall. Great photos on this page!
  • The Butterfield Route Follow the route through the Fallbrook area of San Diego County.
  • Clancy Stage Stop On the Banning Stage Route in San Dimas California.
  • Los Angeles to Tucson Mails Journalistic Remarks in the Journal of San Diego History dating from 1851.
  • The Ranch House at Warner's An extensive history of the Warner's Ranch and its buildings in San Diego County. A stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail.
  • San Diego to Julian Stage Coach Built in 1866 by Abbott-Downing, creators of famous Concord coaches.
  • San Fernando (Newhall) Pass: The Longest Stage Ride in The World From the 1860 diary of William Tallack, who left San Francisco on the Butterfield Overland Mail, returning to Europe from Australia.
  • The Santa Clarita Valley Where Phineas Banning drives the first stage through his 30-foot-deep-cut through Fremont Pass.
  • Stagecoach Days in San Diego, CA Stagecoaches first appeared in the San Diego region in 1852 with the establishment of erratic service between San Diego and Los Angeles. The route required two full days of travel. "Our stages were the Concord type, miserable things to ride in. The motion made the passengers sea-sick, and the dust was terrible." --Katie Leng, stagecoach passenger.
  • Stagecoach Days in the Mountains The roads over the Santa Cruz Mountains served not only the settlers and loggers living and working on the summit, but also provided the means by which people could travel to and from Santa Cruz or San Jose via the stagecoach.
  • Stagecoach Trail Through Solano County This rarely documented stagecoach trail from Sacramento to Benicia was also used by the Pony Express.
  • Fort Larned/Fort Riley Road, Kansas In June 1865 the Butterfield Overland Despatch (BOD) initiated freight service from Atchison to Junction City and westward over the Fort Riley/Fort Larned Road to Fort Ellsworth. West of the fort, the BOD pursued a course north of the Smoky Hill River 527 miles to Denver. Stage service was added in September with eight stations established in the seventy-nine mile stretch between Forts Riley and Ellsworth.
  • Hotels, Taverns and Stage Stations In Kansas
  • The Mahaffie Farmstead and Stagecoach Stop Historic Site on the Santa Fe Trail Mahaffie Farmstead was a stagecoach stop on the Santa Fe Trail from 1863 until 1869
  • The Meeteetsee Trail The Meeteetsee Trail was founded in 1881 by the US Army. This old stage and freight road headed out of Red Lodge, Montana south to Meeteetsee, Wyoming. It is about 100 miles long.
  • Old West Stagecoaches and Wagons For Sale Wagons and coaches that are historically accurate and have been well cared for!
  • The Post Office Stagecoach Stage coaches carried mail for the Post Office Department. The drivers usually stuffed the mailbags under their seats, since passengers sat in the cabin and their baggage went on top of the coach.
  • On the Road In The New Republic The strangeness of American stagecoachs
  • The Search For A Southern Overland Route to California When the Spanish discovered that they could not adequately supply and populate their California settlements by a sea route from Mexico's western coast, they pioneered an overland route from Sonora to southern California. The year was 1774, two years before the signing of the American Declaration of Independence and fifty-two years before Jedediah Smith became the first American to enter California by an overland route. The first party of emigrants to enter California overland traveled the southern route in 1775, sixty-six years before the Bartleson-Bidwell party inaugurated the California Trail as an emigrant route.
  • Stagecoach Routes in Hamilton County Iowa The earliest stagecoach came to Hamilton County Iowa in about 1853. The last stagecoach passed through the county in 1869.

    Texas Stage Lines

  • Riding The Stage in Old Texas In 1853 stagecoach lines were the main mode of travel from Texas to other parts of the country. These coaches only operated on certain days and they also carried the mail.
  • Risher and Hall Stage Lines Controlled sixteen of the thirty-one passenger and mail lines in the state, employed more than 300 men, and used over 1,000 mules and horses in their operations in Texas and Louisiana.
  • San Antonio to El Paso Stage Route Between 1851 and 1881 a series of contractors carried the United States mail and passengers westward by stage from San Antonio to El Paso.
  • Stagecoach Days in South Texas In 1849, the Corpus Christi Star said a line of stages would begin running between Corpus Christi and San Antonio, leaving each Monday. A man named Hall operated a stagecoach line from San Antonio to Brownsville, stopping in Banquete at Ada Fogg's stand. A line owned by Gen. Armstrong ran to Laredo in the 1850s.
  • Stage Lines Through Texas As early as 1835 stagecoach operations began in Texas, and were closely tied to government mail contracts.
  • Trains, Banks, Stagecoaches A List of the robberies attributed to James - Younger Gang Members
  • The Upper Columbia Navigation and Tramway Company. Although stagecoach travel is today considered romantic, in reality it was hot and dusty in summer, tiring and slow.
  • Topsy Stagecoach Road Map of this stage road in Southern Oregon.
  • Western North Carolina Roads, Stage Coaches, and Taverns

    Wyoming Stage Lines

  • Lusk Wyoming The Stagecoach Museum: One of the original four-horse coaches in use on the Cheyenne to Deadwood Line is on display in the Stagecoach Museum.
  • Along the Cheyenne to Deadwood Stage Line Although not as significant as the Overland Stage, probably no stage line has attracted more attention than the Deadwood Stage, more properly, the Blackhills Stage and Express Line.
  • Cheyenne to Deadwood Stage Line A treacherous trail for l870s travelers: Following the route charted in the Cheyenne office, the first Gilman and Salisbury coaches followed a trail of recognizable landmarks across the lonely prairies into the rugged mountainous area of the latest gold rush.


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