NSHS
RG2586-3
NSHS NSHS NSHS NSHS
RG2 RG2 RG2 RG2586
586 586- 586-3
JUNE 2017 • NEBRASKAland 13
City. The baggage of each passenger was limited to twenty-
five pounds and there was a charge of $3 for every extra
pound. At $1 each, meals, consisting of bacon, bread, and
coffee, with sometimes game, such as venison, antelope, or
occasionally a sage hen, could be obtained. Butter and eggs
were unknown luxuries at stage stations, the former selling
in Denver at $1.50 per pound and the latter at the same price
per dozen.
"We rode night and day in the stuffy, uncomfortable coach,
journeying six days to reach Denver and eleven or twelve
days to Salt Lake City… At that time a trip by stage was
considered very grand, yet I have no desire to repeat the
experience."
In 1861 Mark Twain and his brother traveled west by
overland stagecoach, crossing Nebraska on their way to
Nevada. In Roughing It, Twain described the coach as "a
cradle on wheels" and welcomed the adventurous experience
the trip provided. They rode "a-top of the flying coach,
dangled our legs over the side and leveled
an outlook over the world-wide carpet about
us for things new and strange to gaze at. It
thrills me to think of the life and the wild
sense of freedom on those fine overland
mornings!" ■
Visit the Nebraska State Historical Society's
website at nebraskahistory.org.
A stagecoach bound for Fort Randall from a location in northern
Nebraska or South Dakota.
