The Stage Coach
The principal mode of transportation for many hundreds of years was the two wheeled and four wheeled cart, pulled by oxen, mules or horses. Of course the needs of one individual could be met by riding the ox, mule or horse but a wheeled cart could serve two or more people and carry their baggage and goods also. The wheeled cart has taken the form of a chariot, a wagon or a stagecoach but the basic idea was the same. Many of the Kings of this earth, along with their trappings and baggage, have traveled in carts, chariots and stagecoaches and did so for hundreds of years.
The stagecoach was used in the New England and Eastern States of America when the Country was young and new. When the Western part of the Nation was settled and communities and towns began to spring up around Western Missouri and further to the West in California, There was a need for transportation between the two extremes. Stagecoaches began to trek across the wild, barren and sparsely settled lands that lay between the supposedly civilized part of the Nation and the far West. The stagecoaches carried passengers, trade goods, and mail between East and West, between Missouri and California. Mail delivery was slow and travel time on the best of runs was at least 3 weeks. Sometimes the stagecoach was held up by bandits, looking for money, goods and even personal belongings of the passengers.
When gold was discovered in California and the big rush to find it brought thousands to the mountains and hills to look for the bright, yellow metal, the stagecoach routes became quite busy. There was a great need for finding a faster way to convey messages and mail especially the claim registrations of miners who had staked out their claim upon a hard, unforgiving piece of earth.
One day in April, 1863, a stagecoach passenger looked out the stage window and saw a rider on horseback coming down the ridge and he was coming fast.
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