Frances Boyd and the Sierra Stage

This is a story about Frances Boyd's trip over the Sierra on the stage from Cisco - 1868.

Mrs. Boyd took the steamer to Sacramento and then the new soon to be transcontinental railroad to the end of track at Cisco.  From Cisco the journey was by sled “in the midst of a blinding snowstorm, that compelled us to envelop our heads in blankets.”

Not long after, the passengers were transferred to a stage-coach for the trip over the summit.

The stage-coach was “a large vehicle with thoroughbraces (leather straps that support the coach) instead of springs, and a roomy interior that suggested comfort.  Alas ! only suggested !  Possibly no greater discomfort could have been endured than my companion and self underwent that night.  Those old-fashioned stage-coaches for mountain travel were intended to be well filled inside, and well packed outside.  But it so happened that instead of the usual complement of passengers, one other woman and myself were all.

“A pen far more expert than mine would be required to do justice to the horrors of that night.  Though we had left Cisco at noon, we did not reach Virginia City, on the other side of the mountains, until ten o’clock next morning.  As long as daylight lasted we watched in amazement those wonderful mountains, which should have been called ‘Rocky,’ for they have enormous precipices and rock elevations at many points ; from the highest we gazed down into ravines at least fifteen hundred feet below, and shuddered again and again.

“…We peered into endless precipices, down which we momentarily expected to be launched, for the seeming recklessness of our driver and extreme narrowness of the roads made such a fate appear imminent.

“Our alarm did not permit us to duly appreciate the scenery’s magnificent grandeur ; besides, every possible effort was required to keep from being tossed about like balls.  We did not expect to find ourselves alive in the morning, and passed the entire night holding on to anything that promised stability.  An ordinary posture was quite impossible : we had either to brace ourselves by placing both feet against the sides of the vehicle, or seize upon every strap within reach.

“Long before morning all devices, except the extreme one of lying flat on the bottom of the coach and resigning ourselves to the inevitable, had failed.  Every muscle ached with the strain that had been required to keep from being bruised by the constant bumping, and even then we had by no means escaped.

“We had supped at Donner Lake, a beautiful spot in the very heart of the mountains, made famous by the frightful sufferings of the Donner Party, which had given the lake its name, and which has been so well described…It proved an unfortunate prelude to our eventful night ; for in the midst of four own suffering we were compelled to think of what might befall us if we, like that ill-fated party, should be left to the mercy of those grand but cruel mountains, which already seemed so relentless in their embrace that although hast meant torture yet we long to see the last of them.”

Mrs. Boyd left Virginia City “gladly… knowing that soon after we should emerge from mountain roads, and on level plains be less tortured.

“We were not… quite prepared for the method that made jolting impossible… we were greatly surprised [on re-embarking on the stage after breakfast] to find our coach almost full of passengers ; but we climbed in, and for five days and nights were carried onward without the slightest change of any sort…. Whenever in the course of the succeeding five days and nights it was needful to move even our feet, we could only do so by asking our vis-à-vis to move his at the same time, as there was not one inch of space unoccupied.”

Passengers sat “bolt upright” day and night, “Vainly trying to snatch a few moments’ sleep, which the constant lurching of the stage rendered impossible….”  The rest of the mid-winter stage journey was just as unpleasant; “clinging mud,” “meals…conspicuous by their absence,” breakfast at midnight, dine in the early morning, “meats sodden with grease, which disguised their natural flavors so..that I often wondered what animals of the prairies were represented…” It got so bad Frances would “gladly have welcomed some mountains…”

“Sleep was out of the question, and consequently nights seemed endless.” “One night we made eight miles in fifteen hours, and the next day fifteen miles in eight hours.”

Imagine traveling across Nevada, sitting bolt upright, unable to move, night and day, for five days.

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