Wells Fargo Stage Coach

Between 1852 and 1869 the Wells Fargo company built the largest stage transportation system in the world by their own efforts and acquiring other stage companies along the way. The iconic stage coach used by Wells Fargo was built in Concord, New Hampshire, by carriage builder J. Stephens Abbot and wheelwright Lewis Downey and cost $1,100. For the first nine years the company provided mail and passenger service between Saint Louis and San Francisco on the “Butterfield Line”, a route that passed through El Paso, Texas, Los Angeles, CA, and the California Central Valley, a distance of 2,757 miles (4,437 km.) The trip took 28 days. With the outbreak of the civil war in 1861, a new rout had to be found passing through Denver and the Rocky and Sierra Mountains. When the transcontinental railway was completed in 1869, the stage coach service was no longer viable and was terminated.