Transcontinental Travel - A Few Historical Notes, Pictures, And Whatever

Discussion in 'History & Geography' started by Nancy Hart, Apr 2, 2019.

  1. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Travel by Wagon Train

    May, 1841 - the first wagon train of emigrants left from Independence, Missouri, heading for California. Three westward trails began in Independence, Missouri: the Santa Fe, California and Oregon Trails.

    This first group was called the Bidwell-Bartleson party, consisting of 100 farmers and their families and led by Thomas Fitzpatrick. The whole party did not reach California as some of them decided to head for Oregon at some point along their journey. The trip was over 2,000 miles and took an average of five months to complete, for those who survived.

    This is supposed to be a picture of the Bidwell-Bartleson wagon train, but I can't verify it from an independent source.

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  2. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    I suspect the photo to be of later vintage, as photography on the frontier was virtually non-existent in 1841. Maybe the 1850s or 1860s? Even then it was uncommon.
     
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  3. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Yeah, I suspected that too. But I wanted at least one picture.
     
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  4. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    [​IMG]

    Bidwell-Bartleson 1841

    "The westward movement of Americans rolled west of the Appalachians and hung up for a decade or two on the barrier of the Mississippi-Missouri. It was almost an interior sea-coast, the barrier between the settled lands, and the un-peopled and tree-less desert beyond, populated by wild Indians. To be sure, there were scattered enclaves, as far-distant as the stars in the age of “shanks’ mare” and team animals hitched to wagons, or led in a pack-train: far California, equally distant Oregon, the pueblos of Santa Fe, and Texas. And men in exploring parties, or on trade had ventured out to the ends of the known continent… and by the winter of 1840 there were reports of what had been found. Letters, rumor, common talk among the newspapers, and meeting-places had put the temptation and the possibility in peoples’ minds, to the point where an emigrating society had been formed over that winter."

    "The members had pledged to meet, all suitably outfitted and supplied on the 9th of May, 1841 at a rendezvous twenty miles west of Independence, on the first leg of the Santa Fe Trail, intent for California, although none of them had at the time any clear idea of where to go, in order to get there." (More)
     
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    Last edited: Apr 3, 2019
  5. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Wagons crossing Donner Pass in the 1860's. The second photo possibly taken during the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad.

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  6. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    The "Highway of Light" That Guided Early Planes Across America
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    "The dusty landscape of the American West is dotted with enormous concrete arrows. They look like cryptic messages from a primitive civilization — a civilization that was obsessed with westward expansion. And that assessment wouldn't be altogether wrong. But these enormous arrows pointing west tell only part of the story. Because at the dawn of aviation, they were part of America's highway of light — a high-tech system of lighthouses showing pilots how to get from New York City all the way to San Francisco."
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  7. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    Promontory Point, Utah, 1869. The Golden Spike driving marking the completion of the first American transcontinental railroad track!

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  8. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    1869

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    Although most of the workers who constructed the Central Pacific Railroad (coming from the west) were Chinese, they were excluded from the original photograph of the festivities.

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    Last edited: Apr 5, 2019
  9. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    [​IMG]
    "The Golden Spike National Historic Site, as it is now known, offers tourists an opportunity to re-enact the staging of the photograph. This curious communal, repeated act of mimesis occurs twice a day on Saturdays and holidays during the summer tourism season, according to the website, with a “dedicated team of volunteers” who dress in period costumes and recreate the golden spike ceremony."

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    "In 2002 and in 2012, groups of about two hundred Chinese Americans, including descendants of the first railroad workers, gathered for their own re-enactment in Utah, replacing every figure in the historic photo with a Chinese person. It was a symbolic act of resistance to a symbolic act of erasure."

    Utah Discoveries 10: Golden Spike National Historic Site near Promontory, Utah
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    "On the 100-year anniversary of the completion of the railroad, a plaque was erected at the Golden Spike Historical Monument honoring Chinese workers. It reads: "To commemorate the centennial of the first transcontinental railroad in America and to pay tribute to the Chinese workers whose indomitable courage made it possible."
     
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  10. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    Memory of Chinese transcontinental railroad workers to be honored
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  11. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Depot at Cisco Grove, California, near Donner Pass, when Cisco was "the end of the track" - 1868

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    The town of Cisco, 1868

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  12. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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  13. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    The First Great Amercian Road Trip

    "In 1903, a former bicyclist, a dog riding shotgun, and a retired doctor looking to collect a $50 bar bet embarked on America’s first cross-country road trip.

    In the early afternoon of May 23, 1903, Horatio Nelson Jackson and Sewall Crocker slid into the front seat of a gleaming, cherry-red Winton touring car and chugged down San Francisco’s Market Street amid a sea of horse-drawn carriages. The sleeping bags, cooking gear and supplies packed inside the automobile testified to a long journey ahead, but the road trip on which the men were embarking was truly epic—an unprecedented cross-country drive to New York City."


    Horatio Nelson Jackson in The Vermont

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    Bud in his goggles

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    The original Vermont in the Smithsonian Institute

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  14. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    It Wasn't Always Easy to Get to Donner Summit

    "The crossing of Donner Summit was the hardest part of the emigrants’ trip across the country.

    One of the ideas local commercial interests had to encourage travelers to come to cross Donner Summit, early in the season, was the Tahoe Tavern’s Silver Cup. The Tahoe Tavern was a resort in Tahoe City. The silver cup was awarded to the first automobile to cross the Summit.

    In 1911 Arthur Foote entered the race along with several friends. Foote won probably because he was better prepared than other drivers. Storms had washed out the bridge at Cisco Grove but Foote’s block and tackle got him across.

    It took seven days to get from Emigrant Gap to Soda Springs, 23 miles. It was downhill from there to breakfast at Donner Lake, and on to Lake Tahoe for the prize and champagne."

    Four pictures of Mr. Foote's trip

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  15. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    1876
    Expr
    ess train crosses the nation in 83 hours
    "A mere 83 hours after leaving New York City, the Transcontinental Express train arrives in San Francisco."

    "Five days after the transcontinental railroad was completed, daily passenger service over the rails began. The speed and comfort offered by rail travel was so astonishing that many Americans could scarcely believe it, and popular magazines wrote glowing accounts of the amazing journey. For the wealthy, a trip on the transcontinental railroad was a luxurious experience. First-class passengers rode in beautifully appointed cars with plush velvet seats that converted into snug sleeping berths. The finer amenities included steam heat, fresh linen daily, and gracious porters who catered to their every whim. For an extra $4 a day, the wealthy traveler could opt to take the weekly Pacific Hotel Express, which offered first-class dining on board. As one happy passenger wrote, “The rarest and richest of all my journeying through life is this three-thousand miles by rail.”
     
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