Stagecoaches Across the American West

Stagecoaches Across the American West PDF Author: John A. Sells
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780888396051
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This historical guide presents a snapshot of how the stagecoach contributed to the settling of the West. The book offers readers an accurate and comprehensive look at this exciting era in American history.

Stagecoaches Across the American West

Stagecoaches Across the American West PDF Author: John A. Sells
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780888396051
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This historical guide presents a snapshot of how the stagecoach contributed to the settling of the West. The book offers readers an accurate and comprehensive look at this exciting era in American history.

Stagecoach

Stagecoach PDF Author: Philip L. Fradkin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 074322762X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Sweeping in scope, as revealing of an era as it is of a company, Stagecoach is the epic story of Wells Fargo and the American West, by award-winning writer Philip L. Fradkin. The trail of Wells Fargo runs through nearly every imaginable landscape and icon of frontier folklore: the California Gold Rush, the Pony Express, the transcontinental railroad, the Civil and Indian Wars. From the Great Plains to the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, the company's operations embraced almost all social, cultural, and economic activities west of the Mississippi, following one of the greatest migrations in American history. Fortune seekers arriving in California after the discovery of gold in 1849 couldn't bring the necessities of home with them. So Wells Fargo express offices began providing basic services such as the exchange of gold dust for coin, short-term deposits and loans, and reliable delivery and receipt of letters, money, and goods to and from distant places. As its reputation for speed and dependability grew, the sight of a red-and-yellow Wells Fargo stagecoach racing across the prairie came to symbolize not only safe passage but faith in a nation's progress. In fact, for a time Wells Fargo was the most powerful and widespread institution in the American West, even surpassing the presence of the federal government. Stagecoach is a fascinating and rare combination of Western and business history. Along with its colorful association with the frontier -- Wyatt Earp, Black Bart, Buffalo Bill -- readers will discover that swiftness, security, and connectivity have been constants in Wells Fargo's history, and that these themes remain just as important today, 150 years later.

Long Day's Journey

Long Day's Journey PDF Author: Carlos A. Schwantes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780295976914
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
Schwantes gathers historical photos, advertisements, posters, and contemporary accounts to recreate one of the most colorful periods in the American West. 255 illustrations, 40 in color.

Shotguns and Stagecoaches

Shotguns and Stagecoaches PDF Author: John Boessenecker
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN: 1250184908
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
The true stories of the Wild West heroes who guarded the iconic Wells Fargo stagecoaches and trains, battling colorful thieves, vicious highwaymen, and robbers armed with explosives. The phrase "riding shotgun" was no teenage game to the men who guarded stagecoaches and trains the Western frontier. Armed with sawed-off, double-barreled shotguns and an occasional revolver, these express messengers guarded valuable cargo through lawless terrain. They were tough, fighting men who risked their lives every time they climbed into the front boot of a Concord coach. Boessenecker introduces soon-to-be iconic personalities like "Chips" Hodgkins, an express rider known for his white mule and his ability to outrace his competitors, and Henry Johnson, the first Wells Fargo detective. Their lives weren't just one shootout after another—their encounters with desperadoes were won just as often with quick wits and memorized-by-heart knowledge of the land. The highway robbers also get their due. It wouldn't be a book about the Wild West without Black Bart, the most infamous stagecoach robber of all time, and Butch Cassidy's gang, America's most legendary train robbers. Through the Gold Rush and the early days of delivery with horses and saddlebags, to the heyday of stagecoaches and huge shipments of gold, and finally the rise of the railroad and the robbers who concocted unheard-of schemes to loot trains, Wells Fargo always had courageous men to protect its treasure. Their unforgettable bravery and ingenuity make this book a thrilling read.

Great Stagecoach Robberies of the Old West

Great Stagecoach Robberies of the Old West PDF Author: R. Michael Wilson
Publisher: Two Dot Books
ISBN: 9780762741274
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Stagecoach robbers evolved as a consequence of the discovery of gold or silver, or some other mineral treasure, and a town would "spring forth from the earth" overnight. Roads were soon built and stage lines began operating. A "pitching Betsy" would take out bullion and dust and bring in payrolls, always through country that was rough and isolated. The temptation to get rich quickly was too great for some, and the demand, "Hold! Throw out that treasure box!" was heard all too often in the Old West. Most robberies were never solved, but many robbers were caught, indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced. This book includes a collection of 15-20 of the most thrilling stagecoach robberies from 1875-1905.

Stagecoach to Tombstone

Stagecoach to Tombstone PDF Author: Howard Hughes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857717014
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
The true story of the American West on film, through its shooting stars and the directors who shot them...Howard Hughes explores the Western, running from John Ford's "Stagecoach" to the revisionary "Tombstone". Writing with panache and fresh insight, he explores 27 key films, and draws on production notes, cast and crew biographies, and the films' box-office success, to reveal their place in western history. He shows how through reinvention and resurrection, this genre continually postpones the big adios and avoids ending up in Boot Hill...permanently. Major films covered include the best from genre giants John Ford, Howard Hawks and John Wayne, plus classics "High Noon", "Shane", "The Magnificent Seven" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". "Stagecoach to Tombstone" makes many more stops along the way, examining well-known blockbusters and lowly B-movie oaters alike. It examines comedy westerns, adventures 'south of the border', singing cowboys and the varied depiction of Native Americans on screen. Hughes also engagingly charts the genre's timely renovation by Sam Peckinpah ("Ride the High Country" and "The Wild Bunch"), Sergio Leone ("Once Upon a Time in the West") and Clint Eastwood ("The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Unforgiven"). Presented too are the best of western trivia, a filmography of essential films - and ten aficionados and critics, including Alex Cox, Christopher Frayling, Philip French and Ed Buscombe, give their verdict on the best in the west.

The Sagebrush Trail

The Sagebrush Trail PDF Author: Richard Aquila
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816531544
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
"The Sagebrush Trail" is a panoramic survey of western movies in the twentieth century, from Edwin Porter's "The Great Train Robbery" (1903) to Clint Eastwood's "The Unforgiven" (1992) and beyond"--Provided by publisher.

Crime, Justice and Retribution in the American West, 1850-1900

Crime, Justice and Retribution in the American West, 1850-1900 PDF Author: Jeremy Agnew
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476664471
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Western movies are full of images of swaggering outlaws brought to justice by valiant lawmen shooting them down in daring gunfights before riding off into the sunset. In reality it would not have happened that way. Real lawmen did not simply walk away from a gunfight--they had to face the legal system and justify shooting a civilian in the line of duty. Providing a more realistic view of criminal justice in the Old West, this history focuses on how criminals came into conflict with the law and how the law responded. The process is described in detail, from the common crimes of the day--such as train robbery and cattle theft--to the methods of apprehending criminals to their adjudication and punishment by incarceration, flogging or hanging.

“Off with the Crack of a Whip!”

“Off with the Crack of a Whip!” PDF Author: Lee H. Whittlesey
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493081632
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Book Description
Stagecoaches carried visitors to and through Yellowstone National Park for thirty-eight years, from 1878 to 1916, and helped establish Yellowstone as a world-famous travel destination. This Volume One of a two-volume set by preeminent Yellowstone historian Lee Whittlesey is an engaging account of stagecoaching’s first years in the park. In lively, often humorous prose, Whittlesey describes the evolution of stagecoach travel in Yellowstone, the colorful men—and women—who ran the stagecoach companies, and the types of stagecoaches that carried tourists in the park, including the famed “Tally-ho” design. Along the way, Whittlesey profiles the stagecoach drivers who were “rough and profane but men of undoubted nerve,” and he shares stories from passengers who were appalled by their drivers, the “mind-shattering and bone-rattling” roads, the armed hold-ups, and the relentless dust, yet who were entranced by the wonders of this new Wonderland. "A new book by Yellowstone’s premier historian is always cause for celebration. Lee Whittlesey’s “Off with the Crack of a Whip!” is both a lively, colorful paean to the park’s legendary stagecoach days and an astonishing achievement of research on an encyclopedic scale. An amazing book.” — Paul Schullery, author of Searching for Yellowstone and The Bear Doesn’t Know “This book is an excellent source for anyone doing research on Yellowstone history, because stagecoach tourism, as Lee Whittlesey shows, was intertwined with almost every aspect of Yellowstone’s development. Thoroughly well-documented, “Off with the Crack of a Whip!” is a fascinating ride into Yellowstone’s stagecoaching past.” — Dr. Judith Meyer, Professor Emeritus, Missouri State University-Springfield (retired), and author of The Spirit of Yellowstone

Stagecoaches and Wagons

Stagecoaches and Wagons PDF Author: Charles River Editors
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781072056249
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "A more uncouth clumsy machine can scarcely be imagined. In the front is a cabriolet fixed to the body of the coach, for the accommodation of three passengers, who are protected from the rain above, by the projecting roof of the coach, and in front by two heavy curtains of leather, well oiled, and smelling somewhat offensively, fastened to the roof. The inside, which is capacious, and lofty, and will hold six people in great comfort is lined with leather padded, and surrounded with little pockets, in which travellers deposit their bread, snuff, night caps, and pocket handkerchiefs, which generally enjoy each others company, in the same delicate depository. From the roof depends a large net work which is generally crouded with hats, swords, and band boxes, the whole is convenient, and when all parties are seated and arranged, the accommodations are by no means unpleasant. Upon the roof, on the outside, is the imperial, which is generally filled with six or seven persons more, and a heap of luggage, which latter also occupies the basket, and generally presents a pile, half as high again as the coach, which is secured by ropes and chains, tightened by a large iron windlass, which also constitutes another appendage of this moving mass. The body of the carriage rests upon large thongs of leather, fastened to heavy blocks of wood, instead of springs, and the whole is drawn by seven horses." - A European tourist's description of a stagecoach in the early 19th century The United States is a massive country, with the continental 48 states covering over three million square miles. From the 13 colonies along the Atlantic Ocean, the nation spread ever westward, and before automobiles, airplanes, and railroads, the most reliable transportation was one's own two feet or a horse. Wagons, whether covered or uncovered, have been used to haul people and supplies for centuries. Roman armies marched with mule-powered wagons, and the Hussites utilized them to form defensive works in warfare. By the time the United States came into existence, wagons were a tried and true method of transportation, and to that end, men and their families expanded westward in wagons and stagecoaches, the automobiles of the era. Driven by oxen, horses, or mules, wagons and stagecoaches allowed people to traverse long distances much faster than walking, and although this form of travel remained relatively slow and perilous, the journey was often considered worth the risk. Some saw the potential profits in moving to the frontier, and as the nation expanded, enterprising individuals sought to form companies dedicated to stagecoach travel. In fact, trails would be forged across the country to help spread settlers, and the westward movement of Americans in the 19th century became one of the largest and most consequential migrations in history. Among the paths that blazed west, the most well-known is the Oregon Trail, which was not a single trail but a network of paths that began at one of four "jumping off" points. These trails branched off at various points and stretched roughly half the country, and hundreds of thousands of settlers would use it, yet the Oregon Trail is famous not so much for its physical dimensions but for what it represented. As many who used the Oregon Trail described in memoirs, the West represented opportunities for adventure, independence, and fortune. The stagecoaches and wagons were the vehicles carrying the supplies and people, making them crucial in shaping the nation. Stagecoaches and Wagons: The History of Overland Transportation Companies and Methods in 19th Century America looks at the vehicles that helped Americans travel across the young country. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about stagecoaches and wagons like never before.