"AS EVENING APPROACHES our conductor is shouting, 'All out to cross a slough!' It seems the coach with passengers, baggage, and mail is too heavy for the horses to pull through the deep, muddy water. To our surprise we're told to cross on a rather narrow log, and by helping each other, have escaped falling into the murky mess.
"Had I not just come out over the route, I would be perfectly willing to go back, but I know what Hell is like. I've just had 24 days of it." - Passenger and writer for the New York Herald, Waterman L. Ormsby, first through passenger on the Overland Stage, 1858.
A San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin special correspondent, who made the trip from San Francisco to St. Louis in 1858, said, "All the traveler needs to render himself comfortable is a pair of blankets, a revolver or knife (just as he fancies), an overcoat, some wine to mix with the water, (which is not of the sweetest quality) and three or four dollars' worth of provisions. Arms are not furnished the passengers by the Company," the correspondent cautioned. |
