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The BRUTAL Reality of Stagecoach Travel that Hollywood NEVER Shows
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ค. 2025
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Step beyond the Hollywood romanticization to discover the shocking truth about stagecoach travel in the American West. While movies like John Ford's "Stagecoach" paint a picture of thrilling adventures and heroic journeys across picturesque landscapes, the brutal reality was an ordeal of grinding misery that modern people would find almost unbearable.
In this eye-opening investigation, we expose the horrifying truths Hollywood never shows about 19th-century stagecoach travel:
**The Concord "Discomfort" Coach**: Cramped spaces just 4 feet wide where passengers were "squished shoulder-to-shoulder with complete strangers," bouncing violently with broken thoroughbraces
**Torturous Journey Conditions**: Averaging only 5-12 miles per hour on appalling "corduroy roads" that Charles Dickens said could "dislocate all the bones," with 25-day journeys of constant suffering
**Revolting Way Station "Refreshments"**: Station cooks petting animals then plunging hands into biscuit dough, with travelers forced to sleep "three or four to a bed with strangers"
**Unspoken Sanitation Horrors**: No onboard toilets, shared cups and toothbrushes, rampant infestations of fleas and lice, with personal hygiene "accomplished at a horse trough"
**Disease and Death**: The "number one killer" wasn't gunfights but cholera, dysentery, and typhoid that killed "nine out of ten pioneers," spreading through confined coaches and unsanitary conditions
**Real Dangers Beyond Gunfights**: Nearly 350 Wells Fargo robberies between 1870-1884, constant accidents from wheels falling off and coaches overturning, and the complex reality of Native American encounters
Using historical accounts, passenger testimonies, and Mark Twain's vivid descriptions, we reveal why stagecoach travel was a "constant, multi-sensory assault" that tested human endurance to its limits. From the "blinding dust" and "tormented by insects" conditions to drivers' rules warning passengers not to "discuss previous Indian attacks," discover the terrifying reality that made westward expansion far more impressive than any sanitized Hollywood version.
The true story reveals incredible human resilience and the overwhelming necessity that drove people to undertake such brutal journeys across an untamed frontier.
#StagecoachTravel #WildWest #OldWest #AmericanHistory #NativeJournals
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There was no mention of the cost related to Stage Coach traverse,,or the numerous ferries used to cross rivers (thankx-NJ)
Over 20 years ago I met a guy who owned one. He said he won it in a poker game. That sounds pretty wild west to me. He showed me pictures of it, taken indoors and it looked as if it had been out of the elements most of its life. Considering it's age it was a gem. I do not know if this was from that period or a recreation for 50s & 60s TV shows and movies. It sure looked cool tho...
A few years ago I began to read Mark Twain's "Roughin' It" an account of his travel West by stagecoach. I didn't
finish it because it was like reading a horror novel or viewing pictures of the Holocaust. The imaging of eating
maggots with the gruel the stations gave still sticks with me today. Twain didn't exaggerate much.
Some of my ancestors pioneered the West. I visited the Wells-Fargo museum in S.F. and was shocked how
small the coaches were. My Great-grandfather wrote a letter to his wife who planned a trip to Globe, Az. and
advised her to ride a horse rather than the 150 mile trip by stage. I have some of their letters and a friend of
my grandmother died in her 30's from malaria, which was rampant in those mining towns and this was 1907.
The pioneers usually down played their hardships, and I doubt few of us today could endure.
I read that book, since it was an e-book, I did not get a chance to see any pictures. I did finish it, yeah, He was not a happy Camper.
I saw an episode of the original Twilight Zone where a man was filming a Western movie and he gets haunted by the ghosts of passed on cowboys but its not a scary story the ghosts were not evil or demonic. They just wanted to give him advice and guidance to help him film more realistic depictions in his movies.
@@RtFactor1555 Dr. Seuss will give you all the pictures you need, buddy. Kids love it, and I'm sure you will, too.
No we couldn't do it today
Few of them even endured. It's why people were old at 35.
Had the privilege of witnessing a stagecoach up close at the Chicago Museum of Natural History. The seats inside that thing were hard as a rock! Along with the constant dust and nowhere to relieve yourself, THAT had to be a grueling ride! At the various stops, there was a "community toothbrush." That means EVERYBODY USED THAT TOOTHBRUSH AT THAT STOP! UGGG! Hygiene was at it lowest point ever in this country during that time. VERY BLESSED to be born and raised in THIS day and age!
The lowest point? No.
Ya weren’t forced to use the damn toothbrush and No reason ya couldn’t have brought yer Own! What a bunch of tenderfoots in these comments - Any of you ever been on a real camping trip where you hike ten miles before you set up your camp? - I doubt it, unless you were in the Military ( a good toughener for all life situations).
_ "community toothbrush." That means EVERYBODY USED THAT TOOTHBRUSH AT THAT STOP!_
And everybody for the months before you.
@@CEO-xt6ch I hiked the Appalachian Trail last year. You had to carry everything with you and resupply every few days. Quite an adventure!
With the advent of train travel...the comfort level had to feel like heaven!
Toilets, food, and a bed while you travel on a soft journey while protected from the elements. The world can thanks the English for one thing; trains !
I so wish that authentic history like this were taught in Schools nowadays.. the Human Spirit is astonishing
History in many schools teaches all of the evil things that the US has done and how capitalism is terrible. Our school system, especially in the big cities is horrible.
Just think what the younger generations would do if the Internet ever goes down for a lengthy period.😂
My grandfather was a Cobb & Co stagecoach driver in New South Wales, Australia. I and my daughter rode on one at Ballarat in Victoria, a theme park, and can vouch for how uncomfortable they were.
I’ve got a lovely picture of me and my wee granddaughter in that coach . Taken between bounces 🤣 🏴
We didn't have indoor plumbing until 1960. Even then it was a bathtub and sink on the back porch, we still had to use an outhouse. We didn't have electricity until the late 60's. The only electricity we had was in the barn and the separation room (where we separated the cream from the milk, and had an electric butter churn. This was in Iowa. These stories are great, they show what life was really like. It really didn't change much in rural America until the 70's.
No electricity and running water in US in 60s? Really?Are you sure?
@@kdptwbv I can't even think of a way to respond to you without mocking your utter ignorance.
I can vouch for that. My first 8 years of life was in a rural area of the south. We had a hand pump for water, an outhouse, and a wood stove.
We moved into town after that. The house had running water and an indoor toilet. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. No more spiders and wasps and stink!
Back in the early 70s, I got to ride in a stagecoach. It was down in Ocala,Fl at 6 Gun. Our teacher wanted us to experience the travel via stagecoach. We were riding down a dirt road, hit a pothole, and I never forgot the jolt and sudden pain in my back. I was about 11. But I can honestly say I traveled by stagecoach. Yes I do remember an odor in the old stagecoach.
Yikes!! I thought Greyhound bus and a motel 6 was bad enough.makez you appreciate them more. People today have no idea how rough it was
Its good to remind people just how well off we are compared to our grandparents. Thanks !
*But, NOW we have Trump, to make us GREAT AGAIN!!!!*
@@U.666.Tube.isEViL 😂 A convicted-felon president, acting like a very old mafia don!
Anyone who has ever ridden a bus or a third world train a century and a half after those days, must, if they think at all, imagine that it must have been far worse than what they endured on their bus or third world train.
I’m 76. I remember hearing my Uncles describing a trip to town in a Model T Ford a century ago (1920s). There was a barbed wire fence every mile with no gates. You had to pull the staples and let the wires down, then staple the wires back in place after crossing. A 45 mile trip without a flat tire was unimaginable. Often two flats. Tires weren’t mounted on wheels. You removed the tire from the rim manually with tire irons, patched the tube, pumped up the tire with a hand pump and moved on. Doing that in an hour was super-human. This was 30 years after the West was settled, not that long before it was complete.
Any one who thinks it through understands what you describe.
didn't expect the real stagecoach to be such a nightmare the video reminds me not to romanticize history too easily traveling back then meant pain danger and dirt not adventure and glamour big respect to the people who endured it thanks for the eye opener
I'm trying to imagine traveling for 25 days in a space no wider than my desk and half the height of the room it's in, being constantly kicked in the coccyx by the barely effective suspension on rough ground, jammed up against dirty stinking people (myself included), sweltering or freezing depending on the time of year, choking on dust or being eaten alive by mosquitoes, hoping not to catch a severe case of death from disease, paying through the nose for disgusting food at few and far between rest stops, being made to get out and push on rough parts of the track, getting hit in the face by loose luggage and mailboxes, not being able to sleep, and hoping not to eat a bullet or wear an arrow. Thank heavens I only have to _imagine_ it...
Where do I sign up ? Just kidding. The west in general was a difficult place in the 19th century
@@TheYearWas1929 😂 (I'm an Aussie myself, btw. But not a truckie!)
"to eat a bullet or wear an arrow" the former was probably more frequent!
@@internetcensure5849 Absolutely.
“catch a severe case of death”-just about all cases of death are rather severe
I watched the movie 'Stagecoach' and thought, they'd get there a lot faster if they didn't drive through monument valley six times!
😂😂😂
😂😂😂❤❤❤❤
Haha😂😂
in 70 yrs, no one could be arsed to raise this detail that only six people would know to be true, people across the world can now sleep well in their beds for this revelation.
Were they really going out of their way or was it a narrative choice to emphasize the vastness of the landscape?
Brilliant video, so interesting, those poor horses.
Yes, i don't think i could bear hearing what happened to horses.
In Australia we had Cobb and Co. stagecoaches. When my dad was a kid he used to help with the teams of horses!
im a woman 62 i still clean wash cook do housework and i can tell you i definitely am grateful for vacuum cleaners microwaves sewing machines and our cars i dont know if i could of handle western days i appreciate the manufacturers that make what we have today must of been rugged on a stagecoach i would of hate to have been pregnant an travelling in one glad times have changed be grateful ppls these ppl did the hard yards without complaining take me hat off to them
And flushing toilets. Hot showers.
Amen. God bless the inventor of A/C and clean water for hygiene.
@@deekorbel5259
When I was a boy and we'd stay at my Grandfather's house in Italy, you used a chamberpot at night time.
Those little cabinets don't do squat to hem in the smells of nature. Then there was the joy of emptying the pot the next morning.
Washing ourselves was standing under ice cold well water as someone else pumped the well handle so the water could wash you.
Still have lots of great memories though of all the other aspects.
My grandmother had none of those luxuries. She grew up in the 1930's in a small rural village. No indoor toilets, no electricity, wooden floors, horses for transport. Nearest town for supplies about one hour or more by horse ride. Cook in pots over wooden fires. Bath in iron bath tub on certain days. No sanitary pads. You get the idea right?
My grandmother was a skinny tough woman. A survivor in many ways. My aunts dumped her in an old folks home to slowly die at age 98. She always wanted to return to her old village to die and be buried. I feel sad now.
You would adapt. Don't forget. Each generation had it easier than their grandparents. Much easier. You know who had it tough? Adam and eve.
disease and hygiene. never considered. way stations as a miserable stops, new perspective. crowding both in and out also new considerations. thanks for bringing a little more reality into the 'glorious wild west'!
Wash bins filled with germs.
It’s precisely the terrible conditions the early settlers faced that make their success all the more glorious!
Being a woman i could not even imagine!
People had to take it.What choice was there. Ride or walk alone , sleep on the ground , make a fire at night and hope you weren't scalped or robbed. Ok for some. I would have taken the stage to. Has anybody flown lately? Not the best modern experience.
@jimmyd4092.. Big LOL on the reference to modern flying. In another hundred years, people will watch info on how 21st-century passengers suffered in stuffed airline flying tubes.
I don't get on recycled beer cans.....was an FAA airframe and powerplant mechanic. t@@donneary7104
Airline travel should be a lot more expensive than it currently is. The idea that the peasants should be able to afford to fly has ruined the experience for everyone.
Wake up to the truth. Scalping was done by the WHITE FELLAS. Every scalp of the native Indians was handed over to the local authorities for a sum of money.
The savages were the whites. The victims were the natives.
I hope your not being serious @@williammorrill946
I read Mark Twain's Roughing It, about his stagecoach trip across the west, when I was a teen. It was a great reading experience.
Thanks. I just reserved that book at the library.
My grandma traveled by automobile for six weeks in 1906 from New York state to California. My other ancestors had settled in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
Many were farmers, but some operated a saw mill in Ohio.
Wish I knew more about them.
Actually, many were German Lutheran ministers who gave their sermons in German.
I still have a porcelain bowl with burn marks, from the 1906 fire.
Great-grandpa William was the mayor of Flora, Illinois, and campaigned for Teddy Roosevelt's presidency. Great-grandpa and grandpa attended his inauguration in 1901. We still have the tickets from the 1900 Republican Convention.
Many Lutheran and Reformed ministers and attorneys maintained their family's genealogy starting with their arrival in colonial times, late 17th and early 18th centuries. Their detailed records, county records, and family Bibles are among the records used to make internet websites presenting that data. You may be able to track your family by using a primary family surname that has been so recorded and published. History books have been written.
Mark Twain described it graphically in "Roughing It" and despite the brutality it was pretty amazing how fast they could get you from Missouri to Carson City Nevada before the railroad was completed.
Twain described the hardships but relished the positives, at least in hindsight: “And it was comfort in those succeeding days to sit up and contemplate the majestic panorama of mountains and valleys spread out below us and eat ham and hard boiled eggs while our spiritual natures revelled alternately in rainbows, thunderstorms, and peerless sunsets. Nothing helps scenery like ham and eggs. Ham and eggs, and after these a pipe-an old, rank, delicious pipe-ham and eggs and scenery, a “down grade,” a flying coach, a fragrant pipe and a contented heart-these make happiness. It is what all the ages have struggled for.”
Amazing history. The narration was great! I love deep diving into the 'real' history of the old west. Thank you for punching out these entertaining videos. The music also was on point.
We rode in the stagecoach around Old Tucson some years ago. Apparently, it is still available for rides around the old town / stage set. I'm well padded. I have no idea how someone slender could have survived and if you are well padded, you wouldn't be by the time you got to your destination.
Wow, this video totally shatters the Hollywood myth of stagecoach travel! The brutal reality of cramped, filthy conditions and constant disease is wild-makes me wonder how anyone survived those grueling 25-day journeys! What other Wild West icons are hiding such gritty truths? Would you brave a Concord coach for a shot at a new life out West?
Not everyone traveled by stagecoach. A lot of people traveled out West in covered wagon trains. The wagons would gather in a circle for protection at night, then pull out in the morning. Travel is said to have been about 20 miles per day, depending on the weather.
@@NightBazaar20 miles a day would be walking pace for the foot travellers, with the wagons more than loaded with everything I would think there would be very little room for all the travellers to ride. I have been to the States once, the country is just vast, travelling across must have felt like the journey would never end.
If you were moving West, you would have taken a wagon or a train if you had more money.
@haroldcampbell3337 only if the train and tracks existed, it was the coming of the train that sounded the end of long distance stage travel, safer, quicker, cheaper, and if the tracks ran to where you wanted to go even better.
This reminds me of my travels through Cambodia. The roads were so impassable that the driver would often cut out through fields. Many times we crossed steeply ravined rivers on two extremely long pieces of flexible wood, barely wider than the width of the tires, precariously paralleled across the water. The weather was in the high 90's to 100's with no air conditioning. I was the only Caucasian female in a tiny pickup truck squished among Cambodians, four in the front plus an infant and toddler, five in the back, and many others in the bed of the truck. We were piled on top of each other in intense heat. I quickly adjusted to being addressed as "Farang." No one spoke English anyway. The truck broke down three times but I could not complain. It cost me three dollars to travel from Poipet to Siem Reap. The distance between Poipet and Siem Reap is roughly 94 miles. The journey took thirteen hours. It was so hot I remember watching my sweat pool into the grooves where the window goes up and down (I was lucky to have the window seat) and watch it slosh bach and forth or splash out with every jolt. I do not remember ever eating or drinking water because I only brought a small, light pack and had not anticipated how long the journey would take. I brought one change of clothing, socks, a second pair of shoes, a book, and a few toiletries. Restaurants or even little food stalls or markets did not exist en route. The WC was the bush. Not as bad as a stagecoach perhaps but it was very interesting. I am grateful for the experience, it was extremely rough but utterly worth it. Cambodia is a beautiful country, and I would not trade that experience for anything. It was hard but truly marvelous.
"Caucasian female"😂😂😂 You mean, European female?
@@internetcensure5849how dense are you?
Train rides must have been absolute luxury in comparison.
From this video, it is easy to see why the advent of railroads certainly opened the west up for massive expansion.
I would say the majority of people would rather stay around their home fronts instead of a stagecoach venture.
I'd imagine the chookapuffa was more comfy, but I suspect it was still hell.
@@dougerrohmer I am so glad that (unless you believe in reincarnation but if so I cannot remember) I did not live back then. I would H8 living in a world like that so bad that I would rather be a homeless person in 2025 than a billionaire in 1825.
What is that ???
Are you crazy??? Rich is Rich my friend
@@stevesosa599 Being rich in 1820 would be way better than being poor in 1820 but it would not be as good as being poor in 2020. I believe the opposite of the proverb that it is better to rule in he11 than to serve in heaven.
All of it seemed terrible. Hats off to anyone who took this way to travel. GOD bless us all.
The smell must have been overpowering and awful. It's horrifying to contemplate. 🤮
For most of us, heck yea. 💨
Thank you for this video. Very authentic and historical. Extremely difficult conditions. Unimaginable. Unbearable. Truly life threatening. WOW.
I worked on farms as a kid. I can tell you it was non-stop torture. It started at 5AM and ended at 11PM.
At risk kids I worked with, thought I was insane or lying about what I did. I’m 64 now. I’ve been shot, drowned, kidnapped, hit by lightning, gone threw a windshield head first, and fallen off two story roofs twice. I have so far survived cancer that came from poisonous chemicals I sprayed when I was about 16, to treat lumber. I’ve numerous other close calls with death. I nearly burned up in a fire, set by an arsonist.
I’m certain anyone from those past years would say I had an easy life. Lived a life of luxury. I’ve been to Tombstone and other western towns. Their whole existence was survival, by any means. Few did actually survive through sickness and any pitfalls.
Your one lucky guy and can still talk about the past!
@@johngund9921 I think your definition of luck is a bit horriffic ! 😮 😅
In Arizona on INSP TV station, they play old western shows; Gunsmoke, Tales of Wells Fargo and other shows showing people riding those torturous coaches on those bumpy roads.
Fascinating thank you.
The dust alone would be hideous, let alone the rough ride breaking your back. Imagine if you had a weak bladder! 😮
Or if you were a pregnant woman!
or sat next to someone with a weak bladder!
You would have died
At 7:56 I just love the scene of the mans dog howling a Derg to his beloved master passing! As the camera pans upward the man standing with his boots behind the rock that the dead mans head lay, I thought he was going to portray a tough guy saluting his fallen comrade, but no he is actually blubbering into his hands showing true heartbreak!!! Which was most like the TRUTH!!!!
And........... There appears to be a dead horse in the background.
A bad day for all concerned.
We rode the stagecoach “ride” at Knott’s Berry Farm a few times in the 60’s. It was eye-opening. Don’t know if they still have it.
Frontive village was awesome, did you ever make it there?
Dickens described a coach journey from London to Dover in 'A Tale of Two Cities'. Deeply unpleasant.
If Mell Brooks were riding in one it would have an AC unit on the roof. 🤗🤣
Well researched, and narrated piece of history, a little gem.
Wells Fargo rule don't discuss politics or religion. Seems to still apply to today's air travel.
*Maybe you can Put some Meat on that???? Huh????*
The abuse of forcing the horses to pull too much weight heat, dust, and short of water with horrible bits in their mouths would have been more common than than not...
🤠😂
Where was peta?
Your photos and paintings are priceless. Half of my viewing this great video was pausing to study them.
When wagon trains headed west. It took years to reach the West Coast. There were no roads, towns, medical help, or any conveniences the travelers were used to back east. Many died on the way. You had to be one tough character to survive. My hat is off to them.
Next time I have to fly I’ll remember this video to be grateful for what little space I have.
And what a blessing an armrest is! 😂
And how fast you get there
How US monsters, often overweight or even obese, fit into those cramped seats on airplanes, is impossible to fathom.
We all know the Indians were God's gift to the human race. They were perfect in every way and never did anything wrong. They were kind-hearted, gentle, loving, and forgiving.
I've had the experience driving my Chevy Silverado across the flats of the Oregon basin here in Wyoming, crap that was rough!! I can only imagine how a leather strap for shock absorbing must have felt. Every wonder why so many were walking along side the covered wagons while crossing the country? Probably because they couldn't stand riding any more.
During the mid-19th century British Columbia gold rush, the only way to get to the gold mining center of Barkerville was by the Cariboo wagon road, 294 miles from its origin at Lillooet. Getting to Lillooet from New Westminster on the coast was itself an ordeal.
My mother had a good story of traveling from Louisiana to Colorado in 1929 at the age of ten..I assume something like a model T and gravel road all the way with very few motels or gas stations.. Sounded like a grueling summer time trip..
Thanks!
All of it, stunning how much humanity has endured over the course of all history. There seems to be no end of the stories good or bad we were creating in the tapestry of humanity
You forgot to talk about tickets
First, second and third class tickets were available
First class ticket holders could remain inside the stagecoach unless stuck
Second class had to get out and walk up the hills
Third class ticket holders had to get out and help push .
Yes, it was very much a rough situation
Drive from LA to Vegas or Laughlin then get off the 15 or 10 on a dirt road (ensure you have your spare), turn off AC, and drive a while. It won’t be anywhere near the same, but you’ll get the gist.
You are one of the best narrators I have ever encountered. Thank you for what you do and your research and development of your channel. Amazes me. Thank you subscribe right now.
Mom Bobby Farted again😂
Dont make me stop this wagon😂
😂🤣
It wasn’t Bobby, That time. 😂
Are we there yeeeet?
Driver, How much farther to go ?
An associate at a museum told me how they were on one and what was it like. You know it's bad when they said it's better to walk
I have no doubt that stagecoach travel was very difficult, dangerous, and far worse than what movies and TV portray. But, the statistic they cited that 9 out of 10 passengers didnt survive the overland routes? That seems pretty inaccurate, means 1 out of 10 people survived. I'm not sure the west could have had any expansion if all those passengers died along the way.
Other than that, I think the video was likely pretty accurate.
It does seem that if the mortality rate was that high people wouldn't have traveled in droves that way. People may be stubborn and foolish, but if something is more likely to kill you than not, word gets around.
That was obviously inaccurate. I think what they meant to say was that 9 out of 10 people who died succumbed to disease rather then any other cause.
Probably that figure applies to all westward travel--wagon trains, on foot, etc. there were likely a good number who died for lack of knowledge and planning. There were places that required unloading and leaving heavy items like furniture. There were countless dangers, and only some of them related to stagecoaches.
I think they meant 9 out of 10 deaths that occurred were due to disease, watch that part again.
That comment raised my eye brows. Has to mean 9 out of 10 deaths were due to disease not 9 out of 10 travelers died of disease.
Yes, reality was far worse than Hollywood, the movies always showed ladies looking like they just came out of a beauty pageant after a long stage journey, and men always wearing spotless clothes and everybody full of energy upon arrival, Hollywood never showed any reality to real life in westerns.
The railroads coming along must have been a god send to them.
The reality of animal powered transport. Most wagon train travellers walked their way west.
I live near Anza Borrego State Park where the Butterfield Overland Stage Route is still visible close to the existing road called S-2 north of I-8 at Ocotillo. The campground at Vallecito still has the stage stop building there and interesting history. Further up S-2 is Box Canyon the stage road was built around the canyon, still visabile and dangerous looking. Had to be tough in those days !
AWESOME DOCUMENTARY!!!
One of the things I learned from this video is something that isn't mentioned. We see from this how important it was for the US to build an intercontinental railroad and what a miracle it must have seemed to people.
The constant threat of disease never crossed my mind. Also, the overcrowdedness.
Roads did become paved until after WW2.
People back then knew and understood the limitations of stagecoach travel.
It is the modern person who has never seen a dirt road that does not understand.
The movies were not hiding or glamorizing the stagecoach.
I will say, they did make it roomier inside than reality.
In Stagecoach, you get the feeling that 6 adults could easily fit,
even when one was as big as John Wayne.
Obviously ridiculous.
The account of stage coach travel sort of reminds me of traveling by bus in a very poor country today.
The last time I rode in a Stagecoach, the lady next to me had gas. It kept fluffing out her billowing skirts. The trip was horrible. That was in June, 1877. Next time, I took a train. I hope things have changed since then.😊😊😊
Bet ya that was a shitty trip😂😂😂
@@RobertWard-o7t Nothing solid...just fragrant...😂😂
On the train, people would be fluffing out at you from all directions.
So funny!!
@@NightBazaarYou betcha! I had to move to the baggage car. It was fine until the door flew open and a couple of bandits flew in. They just took the strong box. I didn't have any valuables to speak of so I was left in peace. I discovered train travel was just as miserable as the stagecoach. I came to the conclusion that maybe I should just go by horseback or buggy. Then only horse flatulence would offend me. Yes, living in the old west was pure misery.😢😢
I work in hvac, and I don't even know how the guys before used nails and flathead screws..... let alone what these strong people had to endure to survive
My grandmother traveled from California to Pennsylvania by stagecoach and train sometime in the 1890s when she was a little girl. She said that the stagecoach ride was dusty, dirty, hot, and rough. She also said that the train ride wasn’t very much better. It took about 4 weeks to complete the trip . She passed away in 1962.
A coworker in 1979 said how easy it was in the wild west. Preached "I wish I lived there since nobody had any problems like today" . All the Hollywood movies had brainwashed him. So he preached that it was so easy in the past. ie with a simple job one could buy a giant house with ease and marry and it was all wonderland. ie you really had no concerns with safety; food and water was everywhere. Life was so simple and rich and "one barely had to work like today's struggle"
😂
K
Perhaps the most authentic western movie of our time is Lonesome Dove. It was NOT a romantic period!
We have a fully restored stagecoach at our museum. The center row is 48 inches wide, but the front and back rows are 45 inches wide. With 3 passengers per row, that left 15 to 16 inches per person. A 30 mile trip from Reno to Carson City would take 4 hours with 2 stops along the way to change horses. By 1872 the track from Reno to Carson City was finished. Both the speed and comfort level took a major improvement for riders.
I truly thought stagecoaches would have been wider! Yikes, it must have taken steel cohones to travel that way!!!
I really enjoyed this program about the stage coach, great really great.
Listening to the unbearable AI almost brings alive the gut wrenching feel of the horrific stagecoach journey
People today, myself included, should consider ourselves lucky to have modern conveniences. I wonder how people 100 years from now will look back on how we live today.
When I was about 5 years, my uncle had a stagecoach as a display at his restaurant/bus stop in the 60's. As a small boy I would play in it, it was very small and had limited access in or out, even for me as a small boy.
Not to surprised. Thanks for sharing.
What about the Cobb & Co. stagecoaches that crisscrossed south-eastern Australia until 1923 ? See the video “Cobb & Co - its’ place in the history of Australia” (Kym in Darwin)
I rode in my grandfather's mule-pulled wagon, and let me tell you, sitting on that spring-mounted front seat or in the wagon bed was bone-jarring to say the least. I only had to ride a mile or two in that wagon; I shudder to think what riding hundreds of miles in statecoach might have been like.
Stage Coaces were not only used in the western usa. They were used in Europe as well.
Used in the turnpike days of the American East as well.
Sure, but that is boring.
Less prone to attacks by bandits and "Indians", though!
And I thought summer cross-country in an old volkswagon (no a/c) was misery! They wuz a bunch of tough ol birds!!!! ( I'm always impressed by ladies travel outfits in those movies! It's miserable enough in jeans! Cant believe anyone would wear 'best clothes' to travel...)
Studbbaker made lots BUT NOT ALL wagons stage coaches, ect. There were dozens of other concerns making the same things
so did International Harvester. I had one for years made by Studebaker. It had been an ambulance wagon in WW1 and later a mail coach in Lincoln County New Mexico. I drove teams, 4 ups and 6 ups around the ranch and later for the movies. At one time you could buy a wagon kit form Sears. I am glad we don't have to travel by stagecoach these days. So dangerous to drive or ride in,, "traveler's insurance" would not even exist !
A lot of the early automobile and truck manufacturers started as wagon and coach makers
Many early cars were just a buggy with engine and steering mechanism added
Fisher Body comes to mind. For years, GM cars had the "Body by Fisher" with the carriage emblem on the front door sills of their cars ! 😊
I live near Denver Colorado where stagecoach stops have been memorialized. This is good information to really appreciate the travelers of that time!
I live in Oklahoma,a lot of roads still follow old stage routes and many of the old stage stations are still standing,you can spot them every 10 -20 miles. I was pointing them out to my stepdaughter the other day,she was amazed,the rougher the terrain the closer the stations
Wells Fargo bank still preserves some of its old stage coaches which it displayed in the window of its main San Francisco branch. Those stage coaches were TINY. I can't even imagine six people inside, let alone 12 or more.
Well well. You shouldn't be sugar coating this. Stagecoach travel was hard, read Mark Twain. But then truthfully life was brutal.
One would figure that it definitely wasn’t an easy ride.
Glad I was born in the era that I was!
I always knew travel was dangerous and hard back then. It still can be today.
I've traveled worldwide. I'm glad it has gotten better. Leave the past behind. Look to a better future.
I’ve never had any desire to go back in time before 1890. And in reality, that’s still ten years too early.
It would have been nice to go to New Orleans around then, for Morgan Silver Dollars! Time travel, of course.
One of my first jobs was robbery of stagecoachs, not to many people can say that. Columbia CA still has a stagecoach ride.
🤠🐎💰 Hold up there driver
There was a documentary on TV where a current celebrity traced her ancestory back to a New England mill in the mid 19th century. Her ancestor was only one of 8 or nine children born to a particular ancestor who live and worked in one of those mill towns. There was little or no provision made for child minding or sanitation or welfare as we know these things today. The video mentions a similar death rate among pioneers travelling west.
Working and living conditions in Europe and the American East were often worse than in the Wild West.
I vividly recall a film where stage coaches were being lowered down a steep incline and the rope broke with fatal results. Often scouts had to ride ahead of a proposed route to make sure a coach had enough turning space to back track safely if needed.
Westward the Women. (1951) Saw that movie not to long ago. Maybe 3 months ago, old black and white. Except for the Wagonmaster and two other guys, it was all women. All the trials and tribulations of a wagontrain headed to California. Good movie.
You can ride an original at Columbia, California in the Gold Rush country. Very small interior, but then people were smaller in those days.
Even as a child I thought that Stagecoach was a ridiculous movie: all of that shooting and none of the horses got injured, even by accident? One deliberate bullet or arrow wound to a horse would have immediately stopped everything.
I may have missed it in the video, but I've always been curious as to the fares. For example, how much would it cost to travel from St. Louis to San Francisco? Was it comparable to today's airfares or outrageously expensive?
Traveling by stagecoach from St. Louis to San Francisco in the mid-1800s (via routes like the Butterfield Overland Mail or later the Central Overland Trail) was outrageously expensive by the standards of the time. Typical Stagecoach Fare (1860s): $200-$250 one-way from St. Louis to San Francisco. Adjusted for inflation, that’s roughly $7,000 to $9,000 in today’s money (2025 USD), depending on the year and inflation model used. A modern round-trip flight from St. Louis to San Francisco typically costs $300-$600, sometimes less if booked in advance or with budget carriers. So yes, stagecoach fares were far more expensive-even luxury air travel today (first class) is cheaper than the 1860s equivalent. (Source: ChatGPT)
I read the quote from BudsSmartHome and agree on his findings. I thought to check the railroad fares of that era. I found that the 1870 railroad fare for travel New York City to San Francisco ranged between $136 for a pullman sleeping car to $65 for a bench seat only.
@@BudsSmartHomeIf you decided to travel by ship you would be disembarked at Panama then ride a mule across the isthmus (pray you don't get yellow fever). You would catch a ship on the Pacific ship and continue to San Francisco.
Travels, pronounced as tra vels, referres to the discomfort of transport. The word, suspension described the curved wooden frame from which each of the four corners of the carriage, huge😝 leather straps suspend it. The flexible leather gives softened motion for riders comfort.
Voila ! Tra vels must be a French word ?
Love this form of content great stuff!! :)
Stagecoach travel in the Old West... Hollywood sure missed out on the real ‘thrill ride’, cramped, dirty, and dangerous...
But hey, sometimes the real stories are more brutal than the movies. Tarantino movies would come near to the actual reality id say!
If you enjoy uncovering the tough truths behind history, we dive into similar stories on Obscure Chronicle with a relaxing twist!
Great video!
Short rests and continuous travel was not expected.
It’s a testament to the human spirit drive that procreation even occurred under such disgusting conditions.
My grandmother was born in Santa Fe in 1879 and grew up on cavalry posts across the west and used to scoff at the depictions of stagecoach travel on TV westerns, if she could even be persuaded to watch one. We learned all of this at her knee, including the fact that the horses were the most important part of the coach line and they were not run up hills, the passengers got out and walked.
So many stories have gone untold. All those old stagecoach routes were bought out in the forming of the Union Pacific Railroad.