How'd You Get Here?

By 1863 there were new ways to travel the overland trail to the West. 

Hallie Riley Hodder and her sister rode to Atchison, Kansas, on a "steam car".From there it was 700
miles to Denver, Colorado by stagecoach.  Hallie notes in her journal,

"We changed horses every 10 miles at the little stations on the way, and riding nights as well as days, we made 100 miles in 24 hours, reaching Denver on the evening of the 7th day."

Hallie spent a year and a half in Colorado and then returned back to the East. She notes an interesting observation in her journal after leaving Denver...

"Before leaving a cousin provided me with a new small revolver, and had taught me how to use it.  It was loaded and I took it out of the holster at my belt, so I presume I was ready to use it on myself if we were ever captured by Indians." Researching I found  travelers would rather have committed suicide it seems than  be taken prisoner by the Indians.  Interesting...

Next Time...West by Rails
________________________

On this Day in Pioneer History:  "On May 11, 1896, Mari Sandoz, the author of several histories that demonstrated sympathy for Indians that was unusual for the time, is born in Sheridan County, Nebraska.