Wagons & Teaming

Wagons cannot possibly be too simple in their construction. They should be built of thoroughly seasoned timber, 
and this caution applies with most force to the wheels, because where the air is hot and the atmosphere very dry, 
unseasoned wood cracks, shrinks, and readily splinters. At Stockton and Red Bluffs in California, the mule wagons 
are made in three or four divisions, so that a team of eight mules draws them easily over good level ground, but 
when hills have to be ascended, or wet ground got over, then the wagons are separated and taken along one at a 
time.

It is always a safe precaution to have a wagon pole jointed where it goes between the 'hounds;' it saves cripping off 
in bumping over holes. A good team of six mules ought to drag 2,000 lb. in a light wagon over any ordinary prairie
land. Mules travel faster than oxen, and are better fitted to endure heat and want of water, but for a very long 
march, where grass is not over abundant, and no grain can be procured, then I think oxen are preferable. They are
better too at a dead steady pull, through mud and slush. Besides, oxen are cheaper, and you can eat them when 
they are otherwise done with.

It is a novel sight and rather a picturesque one too, in the Red River and Pembina district, to witness a procession 
of carts, each one drawn by a single ox harnessed into shafts after the manner of a dray-horse. A single man, 
called a 'bull-driver,' takes charge of eight or ten carts, and manages his team, aided by a whip (and, by the way, a 
person requires a vast amount of practice to be able to use 'a bull-flogger' cleverly). A young larch tree is usually 
selected for the haft, which should be six feet long and as pliant as a salmon rod; the thong is made of plaited 
green hide, and should be two inches in diameter at the centre or 'belly' of the thong, tapering towards each end, 
and about 3 feet to 3 feet 6 inches in length. The crack of this whip in the hands of an experienced 'bull-driver' is
like the report of a rifle. Woe betide the unfortunate bullock that gets a real taste of the thong; it takes off the hair 
like a hot iron and raises a 'wale' as large as a sausage. 

The oxen are harnessed betwixt shafts like horses, and each ox and its cart will transport a load of eight hundred or
a thousand pounds weight. The cart is constructed mostly of wood, and very little if any iron is used in its building. 
Regular trains of these primitive ox-carts follow the buffalo hunters for the purpose of carting home the hides and 
meat for preserving. The creaking of the wheels, the cracking of the whips, and the continual shouting of the 'bull 
drivers,' cheering and abusing their teams by turns, may be heard when they are miles away.

The following extract from a work entitled 'Across the Continent,' published in the United States, and in London by 
Low & Co., gives such a capital account of stage travelling and of Mr. Ben Holladay, the colossal capitalist who 
'runs ' the Overland Stage Line, and who is certainly, according to the author Mr. Bowles, the tallest coach-
proprietor that ever worked a road on the earth's surface, that I thought it quite worth appending to the chapter on 
teaming.

	'The great Overland Stage Line, by which we are travelling, was originated by Mr. William H. Russell,
	of New-York, and carried on for a year or two by himself and partners, under the name of Russell, 
	Majors, & Waddell. They failed, however, and some three years ago it passed into the hands of their 
	chief creditor, Mr. Ben Holladay, an energetic Missourian, who had been a successful contractor for 
	the Government and for great corporations on the Plains and the Pacific. He has since continued the 
	line, improving, extending, and enlarging it until it is now, perhaps, the greatest enterprise owned and 
	controlled by one man which exists in the country, if not in the world. 

	His line of stages commences at Atchison, on the Missouri River: its first section extends across the 
	great Plains to Denver, six hundred and fifty miles; from here it goes on six hundred miles more to 
	Salt Lake City, along the base of and through the Rocky Mountains at Bridger's Pass. From there to 
	Nevada and California, about seven hundred and fifty miles further, the stage line is owned by an
	eastern company, and is under the management of Wells, Fargo, & Co., the express agents. All this 
	is a daily line, and the coaches used are of the best stage pattern, well known in New England as the 
	'Concord coach.' 

	From Salt Lake Mr. Holladay runs a tri-weekly coach line north and west, nine hundred and fifty miles,
	through Idaho to the Dalles on the Columbia River, in northern Oregon, and branching off at Fort Hall, 
	also a tri-weekly line, to Virginia City, in Montana, four hundred miles more. From Denver, too, he has 
	a subsidiary line into the mountain centres of Central City and Nevada, about forty miles. Over all these 
	routes he carries the mail, and is in the receipt for this service of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
	per annum from the Government. His whole extent of staging and mail contracts — not counting, of 
	course, that under Wells, Fargo, & Co., from Salt Lake west — is two thousand seven hundred and sixty 
	miles, to conduct which he owns some six thousand horses and mules and about two hundred and sixty 
	coaches. 

	All along the routes he has built stations at distances of ten to fifteen miles; he has to draw all his corn 
	from the Missouri River much of his hay has also to be transported hundreds of miles; fuel for his 
	stations comes frequently fifty and one hundred miles. The Indians last year destroyed or stole full 
	half-a-million dollars' worth of his property — barns, houses, animals, feed, &c.; he pays a general
	superintendent ten thousand dollars a year; division superintendents a quarter as much; drivers and 
	stablekeepers get seventy-five dollars a month and their living; he has to mend, and in some cases 
	make, his own roads, so that, large as the sum paid by the Government, and high as the prices for 
	passengers, there is an immense outlay and a great risk in conducting the enterprise. 

	During the last year of unusually enormous prices for everything, and extensive and repeated Indian 
	raids, Mr. Holladay has probably lost money by his stages. The previous year was one of prosperity, 
	and the next is likely to be. But with so immense a machine, exposed to so many chances and 
	uncertainties, the returns must always be doubtful. The passenger fares by his stages are now, from 
	Atchison to Denver one hundred and seventy-five dollars, to Salt Lake three hundred and fifty dollars, 
	to Nevada five hundred dollars, to California five hundred dollars, to Idaho five hundred dollars, to 
	Montana five hundred dollars. These are much higher than they were two years ago, and will probably
	be reduced during the season, as safety from the Indians and lower prices for food and corn are 
	assured, from thirty-three to fifty per cent. 

	Mr. Holladay now resides in New York City, and is reported to be immensely wealthy — say five millions. 
	He owns and runs, also, lines of steamships in the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco, north to Oregon 
	and British Columbia, and south to Mazatlan, Mexico, with contracts for the mails and both routes from 
	our Government or from Maximilian of Mexico. He conducts all this immense business successfully by 
	the choice of able and trusty managers, to whom he pays large salaries. 

	Mr. Holladay visits his overland line about twice a year, and when he does, passes over it with a 
	rapidity and a disregard of expense and rules characteristic of his irrepressible nature. A year or two 
	ago, after the disaster to the steamer 'Golden Gate,' on the Pacific shore, by which the only partner 
	he ever had, Mr. Edward Rust Flint, son of old Dr. Flint of Springfield, lost his life, and himself barely 
	escaped a watery grave, he made the quickest trip overland that it is possible for one man to make 
	before the distance is shortened by railway. He caused himself to be driven from Salt Lake to Atchison, 
	twelve hundred and twenty miles, in six and one-half days, and was only twelve days and two hours 
	from San Francisco to Atchison.

	The trip probably cost him twenty thousand dollars in wear and tear of coaches and injury to and loss 
	of horses by the rapid driving. The only ride over the Plains, at all comparable with this, was that made
	by Mr. Aubrey, on a wager, from Santa Fe to Independence, seven hundred miles, in six and one-half 
	days. But this was made on horseback, and when the rider reached his destination he was so 
	exhausted that he had to be lifted from his horse. How exciting the thought of such rides as these 
	across these open fields and through these mountain gorges, that make up the half of our Continent!


End of Excerpt.
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