Old Missoula

Only Three Stage Lines Left in State by 1898

“The stagecoach days are about over in Montana and Idaho,” S. F. Shannon said in June of 1898 while reminiscing about the early days.

“With the extension of the Northern Pacific branch into Lewiston, Idaho, the little stage line into that town will have to give way. There are but three stage lines left in Montana, and it is only a matter of time before they will be gone.”

Shannon was auditor of the Gilman-Saulsbury lines when they were operating through Montana and he was stationed at Helena. He was with the stagecoach lines from their infancy to their great days of power, then with the railroad.

He said staging in 1898 was not like it was in the earlier days. As soon as a stageline begins to pay, the railroad builds into the area and the stage has to move farther into newer sections of the country.

He told of a ride he took on a stage up through the Okanogan country into British Columbia, terming it one of the worst experiences he had had. “The stages are little more than mere wagons – not the easy going 6 to 12 – horse teamed, luxurious coaches, with accommodations for any number up to 36, that we had in Montana. The roads are bad, and one jolts along over the trails expecting every minute that the next will be his last. He arrives at his destination thoroughly exhausted.”

Shannon said that in the old days the stages were “as luxurious as it was possible to make them. They rode like rocking chairs. On our lines running from Mandan to Missoula and from Corinne over in Idaho to Helena by way of Deer Lodge, the coaches had accommodations for 18, 24, and 36 and were drawn by teams of 6 to 12 horses.

“It was a matter of get there with them. They had the mail contracts and were receiving $364 for every mile they carried 600 pounds of baggage and $150 for each extra hundred pounds. They had a monopoly of that traffic, and that is what caused the Star route investigation in 1884.

“The coaches could carry 4,000 pounds of express and the same amount of mail and baggage, besides their passenger lists. They averaged 8 1/3 miles over the entire distance, or 9 ½ miles actual running time. This was over mountains and plains and in all kinds of weather. Our stages used to leave Bozeman in the morning and arrive in Helena, 98 miles away in the evening.

“Montana was in its stage lines second only to California. There will never be another country such as those two for stage lines. The roads were good and hard through all kinds of weather, and the horses could fairly fly. There was money in staging then.

$76 Million Business

“The Gilman – Saulsbury Co. is said to have made $76,000,000 out of their stage lines and I guess that is true.”

Shannon recalled that the mail contracts and the heavy passenger lists, plus the express, made the profits count up even after they had divided with those in charge of the mail contracts and after the government had “forced them to give up a part” of their take.

He said there were several holdups by road agents in those days, but “as far as I can remember, and I was connected with the lines in the 1870s and early ‘80s, we never lost any bullion.”

The early day Montanan said there were only three stage lines operating in Montana in 1898. “In Oregon and Washington there are a few stage lines, but the day for staging has gone,” he declared.