page_title: Stagecoach
section_title: Improved roads
hierarchical_section_title: Stagecoach / History / Improved roads
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: handbookofwyomi00stra (find matches) Title: The hand-book of Wyoming and guide to the Black Hills and Big Horn regions Year: 1877 (1870s) Authors: Strahorn, Robert E. (Robert Edmund), 1852-1944 Subjects: Publisher: Cheyenne, (Chicago, Knight &amp; Leonard, printers) Contributing Library: The Library of Congress Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: thus beencrippled for nearly a decade. The recent impetus which theseinterests have received is due largely to the military expeditionunder Custer, made in the year 1875, «which gave the publicsome glimpses of the rich deposits of gold in the Black Hills. Although the Black Hills are the grand central objectivepoint of treasure-seeking immigration, they are by no means theonly point in or near Wyoming sought, and, within the currentyear, to be prospected for gold and silver. Many already, fromthe east and from the west, some with capital and some without,are going into the Medicine Bow mineral districts, on the headwaters of the Laramie and Platte, in the Bock Creek, Elk Moun-tain, Brush Creek, Centennial, Last Chance and other districtssouthward to the bprders of Colorado, these all being in the samemineral belt which, in Colorado, has yielded so much treasure.Others are seeking, again, the Sweetwater region, from whoserich mines prospectors and miners were driven by hostile Indians Text Appearing After Image: MINES AND MINING. 59 in 1869, and from which, by similar causes, they have been keptuntil the present time. From this very region I hear of com-panies numbering several hundred each moving northwardtoward the Big Horn. All indications point to the early dis-covery and development of the most prominent mineral-produc-ing localities in Wyoming. We shall, in this chapter, refer more especially to the districtsin the southern and central portions of the Territory, leaving theBlack Hills and Big Horn regions for special articles. Amongthe most important gold and silver belts in Wyoming is that inthe southern part tributary to Laramie City. The region isalmost wholly undeveloped, and consists, first, of the districts inor near the Medicine Bow Mountains, including Rock CreekPlacer Mining district, Centennial, Sheep Mountain, Big Lara-mie and Last Chance, or Douglass districts; and second, of theNorth Park region, extending across the borders of Colorado toHahns Peak and the Rabbit Ear range Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses.
  Widely used before steam-powered, rail transport was available, a stagecoach made long scheduled trips using stage stations or posts where the stagecoach's horses would be replaced by fresh horses. The business of running stagecoaches or the act of journeying in them was known as staging.
  Familiar images of the stagecoach are that of a Royal Mail coach passing through a turnpike gate, a Dickensian passenger coach covered in snow pulling up at a coaching inn, and a highwayman demanding a coach to "stand and deliver". The yard of ale drinking glass is associated by legend with stagecoach drivers, though it was mainly used for drinking feats and special toasts.
context_section_description: Steady improvements in road construction were also made at this time, most importantly the widespread implementation of Macadam roads up and down the country. The speed of coaches in this period rose from around 6 miles per hour (including stops for provisioning) to 8 miles per hour and greatly increased the level of mobility in the country, both for people and for mail. Each route had an average of four coaches operating on it at one time - two for both directions and a further two spares in case of a breakdown en route. Joseph Ballard described the stagecoach service between Manchester and Liverpool in 1815 as having price competition between coaches, with timely service and clean accommodations at inns.
caption: Gentlemen ordered out of the coach to lighten the load on the horses. Three put their shoulders to the back.
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