The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-09-16
THE OLD STAGE COACH DAYS.
How People Used to Travel over the West
ern Plains and Bills.-

How People Used TO Travel over the West
ern Plains and Bills
t'The stage coach days are about over
In Montana and Idaho" said S. F.
Shannon to the Tacoma (Wash.) Led
ger. With the extension of the
Northern Pacific branch into Lewis
ton, Idaho, the little stage into that
town will have to give way. There
are but three stage lines left in Mon
tana, and it is only a matter Of time
before they will be gone. But those
were great days when the great Gill
man-Salisbury lines were operating in
Montana" and Mr.. Shannon lapsed in
to silence moment, as he thought OF
the old days when he was auditor Of
that line, stationed at Helena.
With the stage coach lines from their
infancy to their days of power, and
then with the railroad when it was
finally completed through to the Pa
cific, and now in other business, to look
back on those earlier and at least
equally happy days has been Mr.. Shan
mons experience.
Staging now is not what it was in
the early days. he continued. ''The
trouble now is that, whenever a stage
line begins to pay, railroad is built,
and the stages have to move further
off into the newer sections of the coun-
try. took ride up through Okano-
gan county to the British Columbia
oh ho cfo in
operation there, and 1t was one of the
worst experiences l ever had. The
stages are little more than mere wag-
ons-not the easy-going, six to twelve
horse teamed, luxurious coaches, with
accommodations for any number up to
thirty-six, that we had in Montana.
The roads are bad, and one jolts along
over the trails, expecting every mo-
ment that the next will be his last, and
arrives at his destination thoroughly
exhausted.
"But in the old days we had stages.
Equipment is the word for their fur
nishings. They were as luxurious as
it was possible to make them. They
rode like rocking chairs. On our lines,
running from Mandan to Missoula and
from Corinne over in Idaho to Helena,
by way of Deer Lodge, the coaches had
accommodations for eighteen, twenty
four and thirty-six, and were driven by
teams of six to twelve horses. 1t was
a matter of get there with them. They
had the mail contracts, and werS re-
ceiving 1864 for every mile they car
ried 600 pounds of baggage and $3.50 for
each extra 100 pounds. They had "a
monopoly of that traffic and that was
what caused the star route investiga-
ton in 1884. The coaches could carry
1000 pounds of express and the same
amount of mail and baggage, besides
their passenger lists. They averaged
eight and one-half miles over the en-
tire distance, or nine and one-half
miles actual running time. This was
over mountains and plains, and in all
kinds of weather. Our stages used
to leave Bozeman In the morning and
arrive in Helena, ninety-eight miles
away, in the evening.
Montana was in its stage lines Sec
ond only to California. There will
never be another country such as those
for stage lines The roads were all
good and hard through all kinds of
weather, and the horses could fairly
fly. There was money in staging then.
The Gilman-Salisbury company is said
to have made $16,000,00O out of their
stage lines, and guess that is true The
mall contracts and the heavy passen-
ger lists, to say nothing of the ex-
press, made the profits count up. There
were several hold-ups by road agents
in those days, but as far as I can re-
member-and l was connected with the
lines during the 70s and early Sos
we never lost any bullion.
Montana has only three stage lines
left now, and these run through rich
agricultural districts. Cattle and
sheep ranches are abundant, and the
lines are doing good business. In
few years the railroads will become
jealous of them, if they are not now,
and build through their districts. Then
the stage lines will be only matter
of history.
+In Oregon and Washington there
are few stage lines, but the day for
staging has gone" concluded Mr.. Shan
non, regretfully.
The CoIoneps Threat.