As it turns out, it was a good choice. The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and Express Routes (TCBHSER from now on) by Agnes Wright Spring is actually a well written and engaging picture of the struggles of early gold and fortune seekers as they sought to travel to the Black Hills from the south via the stage.
I assumed the author, Agnes Wright Spring, was just some well- meaning local amateur who wrote history as a hobby. Again, I was mistaken. Agnes Spring was born in Colorado in 1894 and was the first female to enroll in engineering courses at the University of Wyoming. She graduated in 1913 with a degree in civil engineering but was unable to find employment in that completely male dominated field. Eventually, she won a scholarship to Columbia University's Pulitzer School of Journalism where she became friends with Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt. In her lifetime, Agnes Wright Spring wrote 20 books, 13 short stories, and over 600 articles. and served as state historian in both Wyoming and Colorado. She is the only person to have ever been state historian for two different states. On the basis of her writing she was granted membership in both the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. She died in 1988.
I have traveled the route covered in TCBHSER hundreds of times over the past 35 years. Fortunately, I have always done it in an automobile with amenities such as heat, air conditioning, paved roads, and padded seats. Agnes Wright Spring describes a much different travel experience for those hearty enough to try to get from Cheyenne, Wyoming to the gold fields of the Black Hills of South Dakota from 1876 to 1887.
Even in a nice, comfortable car on a perfect day this is a dreary trip. Five or six hours pass by like time spent waiting in a dentist's office. A traveler might leave in perfect weather and encounter high winds, rain, snow, or hail at some point. Sometimes all of those in a single trip. The modern traveler also need not be concerned with road agents, Sioux warriors, or carnivorous beasts.
The intrepid fortune seeker of the stage route days had to deal with all of those things plus 60 hours traveling time in a Concord wagon that, while it was the Cadillac of its time, was still only equipped with wooden wheels and leather shock absorbers. Probably no lumbar feature in the seats, either.
And yet the coaches ran usually 3 times a week year round, hauled thousands of people to the Hills, and hauled many thousands of dollars of gold back to Cheyenne. The coaches also hauled mail and other vital supplies.
Agnes Wright Spring details the brave men who piloted the stagecoaches. Men such as the esteemed Johnny Slaughter who lost his life in a hold up, and George Lathrop, one of the best drivers and the man who drove the last run in February of 1887. She also goes into great detail about the difficulties of getting the stagecoach operation off the ground, and the efforts of men like Luke Vorhees who kept it running efficiently. And finally, the author writes at length about the ever present road agents, desperate men who preferred to dig for their their gold in the safes of the stages.
Eventually, the coming of the railroad ended the era of stagecoach travel but as one travels along the route today the stage line stops are still evident. Places such as Chugwater and Lusk owe much of their existence to the stage. Other roadside markers and crumbling stage stops still bear witness to the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and Express.
One final note: the town of Lusk owes its name to a rancher named Frank Lusk who sold some of his land to the railroad for a "reasonable price." That's it. Sorry it wasn't more interesting or exciting. Just a rancher's last name. Made a land deal. Probably bought some cows with the money. That is all.
