Cross-Country Travel in the 1800s – by Donna Schlachter – with giveaway

 

We take a lot for granted today when we hop in our car or line up at the airport or consider taking a train across the country. Not only did travel in the 1800s take tens or hundreds of times longer than today, it was far more dangerous, expensive in relation to the cost of living, and uncomfortable.

Regardless of the mode of travel, just about every trip could prove deadly. From runaway horses to buffalo blocking the rail line, to your ship sinking in a storm or your canoe or barge sinking in a flash flood, your arrival was never a done deal.

But the 1800s were a time of immense progress, and the tales of rich soil and forests and gold fields west of the Mississippi lured many. In fact, many of those tales were fabricated by men who’d never even been west of the Old Man River.

 

Photo Courtesy of Donna Schlachter

Expansion to the west began primarily by settlers following in the tracks of previous explorers, hunters, and trackers. Employing covered wagons, these settlers left most of their lives behind, trading it for a pair or two of oxen or mules, a wagon, and enough supplies to last for several months. Prices for food, clothing, and wagon parts were inflated along the trail because mercantiles and way stations knew they had little competition. But fording rivers, dysentery, and attacks from Indians killed many. It’s said that there is a body buried every mile along the Oregon Trail.

Other dangers included horses stampeding, hunger, getting caught in an early storm in the mountains, losing the trail and perishing from hunger, not packing enough water to cross the desert, along with animal attacks, snake bites, and the various maladies that come along, including appendicitis, broken limbs, and childbirth.

Westward travelers typically left from one of three points: Independence, MO; Saint Joseph, MO; or Council Bluffs, IA. The trails from these cities converged in central Nebraska, following the local rivers across Nebraska and Wyoming. On the western side of the Continental Divide, the Mormon Trail led to Salt Like City, while the Oregon-California Trail took settlers to Idaho. Journeys usually left in the spring to avoid winter storms, but often an early storm caught travelers unawares.

While the Oregon Trail was one of the best-known roads—if it were to be called such—the Cumberland Road transformed the country around the turn of the 1800s. It was the first road funded by the federal government, and it took decades to complete. By 1825, the road was celebrated in song, story, painting, and poetry. It ran from Cumberland, Maryland and terminated in Vandalia, Illinois. While we wouldn’t consider it cross-country today, it crossed the known union of the time.

From Wikipedia Common Files

Traveling by steamboat was usually much more pleasant, unless you ran aground, as Mark Twain did. Steamboats were popular passage on the Mississippi, although there were other routes, as well, such as Providence to New York. Sailing on the seaward side, strong gales often threatened passengers and ships alike.

From Wikipedia Common Files

Canals were thought to be the next best thing. The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, reduced the time it took to get from New York to Chicago in half, plus it was much more comfortable than riding in a carriage on a gravel or unpaved road.

One comment often made about the ships was that the food was excellent, even compared to the finest of hotels. However, while the cruise sounds luxurious, calm, and filled with good food, not all was well. In some cases, the bridges were so low that folks had to lay flat on the deck to avoid being decapitated.

From Wikipedia Common Files

Railroad passenger travel has almost disappeared today due to other faster modes of transportation, but in 1812, it was still a dream that passengers could travel almost as fast as a bird (15-20 miles an hour). With speeds like that, they could set out from Washington in the morning, breakfast in Baltimore, midday meal in Philadelphia, and supper in New York the same day.

In 1827, the first thirteen miles of track opened, and because there was a lot of money to be made, expansion happened quickly. However, with no government oversight and substandard construction, train derailments happened often and people died.

Westward expansion of the railroad was slow to catch on, however, mostly because of the Rocky Mountains. Laying rail along that path seemed a fool’s errand. Instead, individual local railroads cropped up, unconnected or duplicative. With the local expansion of railroads, technically, track only needed to be laid between Nebraska and California. Now folks could travel from one end of the country to the other in less than four days, so long as there were no washouts, bison or cattle herds blocking the rail, deep snow, floods…

Passengers asserted that the train seating was far more comfortable than a stagecoach, a covered wagon, or a horse.

 

From Wikipedia Common Files

Prior to land crossings, the only way to get from one coast to the other was via a ship southward, around Cape Horn, then north, for the better part of a year. Being on the sea for an extended time like that increased your chances of falling ill or getting injured or even dying. Re-supplying along the way meant opportunities to run amuck of the local natives, who were often distrustful of white people.

  

In my book, Tina, we find an orphaned young woman who lives in a covered wagon in Loveland, Colorado, who is left in charge of her younger sisters. She must earn money to feed and house them, but when she falls victim to danger, what will she do? You can check out the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Tina-Prairie-Roses-Collection-2023-ebook/dp/B0BWGKGYTL  and the series here:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R8DSMB4?binding=kindle_edition&qid=1680033081

 

 

 

About Donna:

A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 60 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both, and is an avid oil painter. She also coaches writers at any stage of their manuscript. Learn more at www.donnaschlachter.com/Tapestry

 

 

 

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Resources:

Grunge https://www.grunge.com/667139/what-it-was-really-like-to-travel-across-the-us-in-the-1800s/

http://gdc.gale.com/archivesunbound/

 

 

 

Hell-On-Wheels Railroad Camps—and a Giveaway

I’m excited to announce that on July 1, my fifth novella releases in the Of Rags and Riches Romance Collection from Barbour Publishing. The collection’s theme is the Gilded Age—nine stories spanning from the late 1860’s through the turn of the century. Each story explores some different aspects of the era, whether that be wealth, leisure, opulence, social reform, immigration, industry, or other ideas.

My own story in this collection, Union Pacific Princess, focuses on the building of the Transcontinental Railroad and how Westward Expansion impacted the Native American culture of the time. The story is set in 1867, in a hell-on-wheels railroad camp near Cheyenne, Dakota Territory (modern day Wyoming). My heroine is Dara Forsythe, the socialite daughter of one of the Union Pacific bigwigs. After her mother’s untimely death, she leaves Boston to join her father, whom she hasn’t seen in seven years, with the hope of recapturing the closeness they once shared. Unfortunately for Dara, she has a bit of a culture shock when she steps off the train.

Used to the society life of the Boston elite, Dara steps out of her private railcar to find herself in a hell-on-wheels railroad camp. Dingy white tents of all different sizes housed anything from building supplies for the railroad to sleeping quarters for the workers, perhaps even the occasional church or office. But most often, they were the mobile homes for saloons, gambling halls, and brothels which followed the train’s progress, offering a place for the railroad workers to spend their hard-earned money. Can you imagine the astonishment a young, 18-year-old society girl might feel when she steps outside the plush Pullman train car she’s called “home” for the past several weeks, only to look around and find nothing but a sea of tents with nary a single permanent building, and nothing more than mud pathways connecting them all? No matter how much she might have mentally prepared herself for the change, I dare say it would be a “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Boston anymore!” moment.

Photograph of Benton, Wyoming, along the Union Pacific line 672 miles west of Omaha. Located 11 miles east of the present-day town of Rawlins, Benton only existed for three months from July to September, 1868. The tent city boasted a population of 3,000 people, and included 25 saloons, and five dance halls. Image courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History & Genealogy Digital Collections.

As noted above, the Hell-On-Wheels camps were moving towns that followed the railroad’s path. They would spring up, almost overnight as both Confederate and Federal soldiers sought new homes and lives after the ravages of the Civil War. Also plentiful were Irish immigrants who’d come to America seeking a better life during the Great Famine of the late 1840’s and early 1850’s. Many of them came to New York or other East Coast cities but gradually began making their way west. Then, of course, you had your card sharks, saloon owners, and soiled doves, as well as your more respectable sorts who set up reputable mercantiles, barber shops, and other enterprises.

A group of railroad workers make music in their off time-one of the more wholesome pursuits
 that occurred in a Hell On Wheels railroad camp during the building of the Transcontinental Railroad.

© Andrew J. Russell [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Most of the Hell-On-Wheels camps popped up for a short time—usually about two months—and once the train moved far enough west, the businessmen and women packed up their establishments and moved down the tracks, leaving little but their trash behind. However, some such camps developed into slightly longer-lasting towns that tried to make a go of life on the frontier. Many failed within a few years for various reasons, often having to do with where the train made regular stops. However, there were a few such camps-turned-towns that survived—and thrive even today. One such town is Cheyenne, Wyoming. One reason why Cheyenne may have succeeded is that it wasn’t solely a stop on the Union Pacific Railroad line, but it was also the junction point where the Southern railroad spur leading to Denver, Colorado, began. That secured it as an important hub of train activity, far longer than many of the ill-fated towns that failed to make a go of life along the Union Pacific tracks.

It’s your turn: If you had lived during this period of history, would you have wanted to visit a hell-on-wheels railroad camp or possibly consider working for the railroad? Why or why not? Leave me your email address when you answer these questions, and you will be included in the drawing for a print copy of the Of Rags and Riches Romance Collection.

Of Rags And Riches Romance Collection

Journey along in nine historical romances with those who lives are transformed by the opulence, growth, and great changes taking place in America’s Gilded Age. Nine couples meet during these exhilarating times and work to build a future together through fighting for social reform, celebrating new opportunities for leisure activities, taking advantage of economic growth and new inventions, and more. Watch as these romances develop and legacies of faith and love are formed.

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. She currently writes historical novellas of the American West for Barbour Publishing and works as a Content Editor for Firefly Southern Fiction. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.