MR 569 Ed Heimann drives his stagecoach at the Cowboy Christmas parade and celebration in Capitan, New Mexico.
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers. Stagecoach passengers also faced the danger of Indian attack on coaches or at way stations. There were some Indian attacks on coaches and on the stations of the central overland route and Pony Express stations. The worst attack was in New Mexico Territory in 1861. Until the February Bascom Affair, relations of the Giddings Line, (successor of the San Antonio and San Diego Line), with the Apache in New Mexico Territory were good. The Apache provided most of the hay for their stations between Mesilla, New Mexico and Tucson, Arizona. Afterward, Cochise began his war to drive all the Americans out of Apache lands. This resulted in the deaths of the crews and passengers of six coaches (which were then burned) and destruction of all but one of the way stations and their station keepers. An attempt to find and pacify Cochise by James Giddings, brother of the general manager, resulted in the death of Giddings and a dozen more men. This loss and the beginning of the American Civil War ended overland stagecoach service on the southern overland route. The last American chapter in the use of the stagecoaches took place between 1890 and the late 1920s, when the road to Young, Arizona was paved and the stagecoach was replaced with a Ford motorcar. In the end, it was the motor bus, not the train, that caused the final disuse of these horse-drawn vehicles, and many "automobile stage companies" were established in the early 20th century.
Size: 5419px × 3496px
Location: Capitan, New Mexico, USA, United States, America
Photo credit: © M L Pearson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: Yes
Keywords: america, american, capitan, celebration, driver, education, festival, mexico, outdoor, outdoors, parade, red, small, small-town, southwest, stagecoach, teamster, tourism, town, travel, usa, west, western, wild
