Blog, civil war, development, driving, History, overland, railway, Road Books, stagecoach, The Yankee Road, Travel, Writing, yankee

Some Rough Travel Comparisons

Something that seems to be left out of most accounts of travelling overland across the continent is how long it took, especially for those going west from the Mississippi River valley, and what the introduction of the railroad and then the automobile meant to the traveller. For the wagon going to Oregon, or the Mormon… Continue reading Some Rough Travel Comparisons

Blog, butterfield, civil war, Gold Rush, History, kansas city, overland, railway, Road Books, stagecoach, The Yankee Road, yankee

The Second Butterfield Stage (Sort Of)

When I was writing a chapter for the second volume of my book, The Yankee Road, I told the story of John Butterfield and his Overland Mail Company, which operated a stagecoach line between St. Louis and San Francisco between 1858 and 1861; its existence cut short by the outbreak of the Civil War. The… Continue reading The Second Butterfield Stage (Sort Of)