SCOTT LANCER's TRAVEL ITINERARY, BOSTON TO MORRO COYO
March/April 1870

 

 

 

Leaves

 

Arrives

 

 

 

DAY ONE
Weds
March 23

5.00 am

 

BOSTON

 

 

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad

Drawing Room carriages.
Sleepers available in 1880s when Lake Shore etc line incorporated. ? earlier?

At Rochester train merges with the Special Chicago Express

 

Scott stays in Chicago overnight.

 

1.20 pm

Albany

 

6.30 pm

Syracuse

 

9.20-pm

Rochester

 

DAY TWO
Thurs
March 24

 

12.05
(midnight)

Buffalo

 

5.35 am

Cleveland

 

6.50 am

Cincinnati

 

4.00 pm

Chicago

DAY THREE
Friday
March 25

10 am

 

Chicago

 

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad

Scott meets Charles Nordhoff, journalist from Harper's Monthly Magazine.  CN a pleasant and very knowledgeable travelling companion  - he's travelling to SF and researching a series of articles for the magazine (actually published in 1872) to encourage tourism.

 

DAY FOUR
Sat
March 26

 

8.50 am

Omaha (Council Bluffs)

10.20am

 

Omaha

 

Union Pacific Railroad

 

Pulman Palace Drawing Room car and sleeper cars for First Class passengers only. 
No meal stops noted on timetable – dining car?

Buys some books at Laramie – dime novels, based on fantastical tales of some of the West's more colourful characters: Wes Hardin, Dallas Stoudenmire. Johnny Madrid, Clay Allison

 

DAY FIVE
Sunday
March 27

 

9.20 am

Cheyenne

 

12.55pm

Laramie

6pm

 

 Ogden

 

Central Pacific Railroad

First class cars now called Silver Palace.  Through passengers get priority.

Promontory was a temporary town with no real buildings or population.  Famous for being the site of the Golden Spike joining the UPR and CPR, to create the single transatlantic route.

Elko, Argenta, Humboldt and Reno all meal stops to allow the passengers to rush into the station restaurant.  Nordhoff's (real) article in Harpers Magazine in May 1872, suggests each meal stop was about 30 minutes and that the conductor reassured the ladies that he'd never leave them behind.

Summit is highest point of the railroad as it gets through the Sierras Nevada – at 7,042 feet the road runs in a tunnel through mountain.  Snow sheds kept the road clear from heavy snowfalls and avalanches.

Cisco and Junction also meal stops

 

9.05 pm

Promontory

DAY SIX
Monday, March 28

 

9 am

Elko

 

1.10 pm

Argenta

6.50

7.20 pm

Humboldt

 

 

DAY SEVEN
Tuesday March 29

1.45 am

2.05 am

Reno

 

5.15am

 Summit

 

6.45 am

Cisco

 

12.15 pm

 Junction

 

1.10 pm

 Sacramento

1.30 pm

 

 Sacramento

 

Western Pacific Railroad

Train runs out into SF bay on a pier at Oakland, where the passengers embarked straight onto a ferry over to San Francisco proper.

 

3.20 pm

Stockton

 

3.45 pm

San Joaquin Bridge

 

7.05 pm

Oakland Wharf

 

7.30 pm

SAN FRANCISCO

DAY EIGHT
Weds March 30

Scott at leisure in San Francisco.  Stays at the Palace Hotel.  Sightseeing in SF and environs.

DAY NINE Thursday March 31
DAY TEN
 Friday April 1

Business discussions with Geo. Paynter Esq, manufacturer, and his bankers, including a day spent at the Paynter manufactory (Mr Paynter manufactures fine furnishings for the burgeoning San Francisco middle-classes and is negotiating a deal with the railroad companies and Pullmans to fit out the cars). 

DAY ELEVEN Saturday  April 2
DAY TWELVE
Sunday  April 3

Scott joins Mr Paynter at his country house.  He flirts charmingly with Miss Abigail Paynter (aged twenty) and generally charms the Paynter family.  Mrs Paynter is heard to rhapsodise on his horsemanship, his refined manners and his "cute" accent.  Scott, when offered shellfish for dinner, talks about the quality of "larbsters from Glarster" in an exaggerated Bostonian twang in order to see Miss Abigail's dimples and hear her laugh, which he describes as 'melodious'.  Altogether, the most pleasant part of his journey so far. Miss Abigail is the pattern-card of respectability, however, and it never gets beyond a little gallantry on Scott's side.

DAY THIRTEEN
Mon April 4

Scott returns to SF with Mr Paynter and finalises business deal,  Telegraphs good news to Harlan Garret in Boston, following that with a long detailed business report and copies of the contracts, which he sends to Boston via the Wells Fargo company.  Takes Mr Paynter to dinner to celebrate – introduces him to Charles Nordhoff

DAY FOURTEEN
Tues April 5

8am

 

San Francisco

Western Pacific Railroad

 

 

12.15pm

Stockton

DAY FIFTEEN
Weds April 6

7am

 

Stockton

Butterfields stagecoach service

Stockton-Lathrop-Manteca-Modesto-Turlock-Merced-Madera. Stop at Madera Way Station – about 95 miles, 12-13 hours journey

 

8pm

Madera Way Station

 

DAY SIXTEEN
Thurs  April 7

7am

 

Madera Way Station

Madera-Fresno Way station (20 miles)  - 3 hours. 

 

10am

Fresno Way Station

11.30 am

 

Fresno Way Station

Local Stage for Morro Coyo

Fresno – Morro Coyo
about 20 miles, 3 hours
An uncomfortable journey without much diversion, except that 10 miles out from Morro Coyo, the stage stops to take on another passenger, a dark young man in a rose-pink shirt and elaborately decorative pants of a kind Scott has never seen.  Scott concludes that the young man is bumptious and uneducated, and thinks that he may be dangerous. 

 

1.45 pm

Morro Coyo

 

All the train times, stations and railroad companies are accurate – see The Traveller's Official Railway Guide for the United States and Canada, June 1870 (http://www.cprr.org/Museum/Travellers_Guide_6-1870.html). 

Stage – and the famous meeting outside Morro Coyo.
The stagecoach route and times are poetic license.  I've put Morro Coyo (and Lancer) near present day Coalinga in the San Joaquin valley.  Stages did between 6 -7 miles per hour with frequent short stops to change the horses.

The invented stage route follows present day Hwy 99 – not too farfetched as the early tarmac roads would have followed existing stage routes.  Fresno then barely existed, but I've made it a way station and an intersection with local stages – a village that will grow when the railroads extend their reach.  By putting Lancer where Coalinga is, then Scott leaves Stockton and travels broadly SE down to Fresno.  At Fresno, he transfers to a smaller local stage that turns west to reach Morro Coyo.

Johnny is travelling NW from Sonora, and, being on horseback, doesn't have to keep to roads.  If we assume he's very slightly off course and a little too far east when he loses his horse, then it's feasible that he can intersect with the local stage as it works its way SW from Fresno.

The rest is history.

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