The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-05-11
THE OLD sTAGEcoAcHEs.

THE OLD sTAGECoAcREs.
Fabulous Profits Made by the Companies
Who Owned Them.
1.-The stagecoach days are about
over in Montana and Idaho, said S.
F. Shannon to reporter. "With the
extension of the Northern Pacific
branch into Lewiston, Ida, the little
stage line into that town will have
to give way. There are but three
stage lines left in Montana, and it is
only matter of time before they
will be gone. But those were great
days when the great Gilman-Sauls-
bury lines were operating in Mon
tara" And Mr.. Shannon lapsed into
silence a moment as he thought of
the old days when he was auditor of
that line, stationed at Helena.
With the stagecoach lines from
their infancy to their days of power
and then with the railroad when it
was finally completed through to
the Pacific, and now in other business
to look back on those earlier and at
least equally happy days, has been
Mr.. Shannon's experience. He is in
tin1ately acquainted with the heads
of the Northern Pacific and was with
that road long before the present
management came to the hem. He
is a personal friend of the old time
frontiersman, withala a good business
man of the later days.
Staging now is not what it was
in the early days he continued.
1.-The trouble now is that whenever
stage line begins to pay a railroad
isbuilt, and the stages have to move
farther eff into the newer sections of
thecountry. Itook ride up through
Okanogan county to the British Co
lumbia line short time ago on the
stages in operation there, and it was
one of the worse experiences ever
had. The stages are little more than
mere wagons mot the easy going 6
to 10 horse teamed luxurious coaches
with accommodations for any num-
ber up to SO that we had in Montana.
The roads are bad, and one jolts
along over the trails expecting every
minute that the next will be his last.
He arrives at his destination thor
oughly exhausted.
But in the old days we had
stages. Equipment is the word for
their furnishings. They were as
luxurious as it was possible to make
them. They rode like rocking chaire.
On our lines running from Mandan
to Missoula and from Corinne over
in Idaho to Helena by way of Deer
Lodge, the coaches had accommodate
tions for 1s, "a and 36 and were
drawn by teams of to 10 horses.
1t was matter of get there with
them. They had the mail contracts
and were receiving 1854 for every
mile they carried 600 pounds of bag
gage and $3.50 for each extra hun
dred pounds. They had a monopoly
of that traffic, and that is what
caused the star route investigation
in 1884. The coaches could carry
1000 pounds of express and the
same amount of mail and baggage,
hesides their passenger lists. They
averaged 8 1-3 miles over this entire
distance, or 9H 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,
SO miles away, in the evening.
Montana was in its stage lines
second only to California. There
will never be another country such
as those two 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-Sauls-
bury company is said to have made
S76, 200, 600 out of their stage lines,
and guess that is true. The mail
contracts and the heavy passenger
lists, to say nothing Of the express,
made the profits count up, even aft
er they had divided with those in
charge of the mail contracts and
after the government had forced
them to give up part of their steal
ings.
"There were several hold ups by
road agents in those days, but as far
as can remember, and | was con-
nected with the lines during the
seventies and early eighties, we new
er 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 bust
ness. In a 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. All
the lines run out of Livingston, Mon.