[PRCo] Re: Museums

[Fred W. Schneider III]

> > Anyway, that's my two cents worth.  Now, does anyone know where I could
> > find a directory of stagecoach museums?  Don't know of any around here.
> > Knott's Berry Farm used to have a stagecoach line, but I don't know if
> > it's still around.  And is there a stagecoach discussion list anywhere
> > around.  I dunno, I'd imagine that they'd have flame wars over
> > Butterfield vs Wells Fargo.
> >
 >
> > Charlie
> >
> > Charlesebrown at webtv.net
> >
> >
I missed this on the first reading.  I never heard of any such place
although I've seen stage coaches ... perhaps some were original and some
may have been Hollywood creations.  I suspect that the designs varied
considerably over time and might not have always followed the Hollywood
format of a six person, round bottomed box, with a driver and someone
else riding shot gun to protect the steel money box.  Stage coaches were
not simply a western thing ... they were a nation wide conveyance before
the railroad, and supplemental to the railroads after they came on the
scene.  For example, the last mention I've found of a stage in Lancaster
County, Pa., was in 1906 when the Lancaster and Paradise stage was
abandoned because the trolley line had been opened. Strangely enough,
that stage coach made money running beside the Philadelphia and Columbia
Railroad for nearly a half century.  Sounds like a postal subsidy to me. 

If anyone ever finds such a museum, or a general GOOD history on the
subject of stage coaches, hansom cabs, and other mass transportation
without guideways by horse or mule, I would like to know too.  That
would be something that might make be drive across the country to visit.