A Need for Speed

 It was a hurry-up mindset that decisively shaped the technology of American travel.  The need to move fast over long distances shaped the highways and vehicles by which pioneers moved west.  A  technology of haste...

Long, dangerous stretches of desert, a lack of water, deep snows and hostile Indians made the travel west one where the quicker you made it through, the safer you would be.  To move quickly was a matter of survival, and a now-or-never mentality was the norm.

Wagons, steamships and railroads all were focused on moving people there as quickly as possible, not on building anything for the future.  Every owner of a vehicle that carried pioneers to the West and even around the West knew the importance of light construction, speed and freedom of movement.

For the overland wagon, the Concord carriage or heavy Conestoga wagon of the early pioneer who had shorter travels to get to the frontier would no longer do.  These were replaced by the light "prairie schooner" or "prairie wagon" which was smaller in size, without a door, very bad springs and cheap construction.  They were built for maneuverability and speed, never really expected to outlast the journey.  They did however, skim across the prairies like nothing save a horse in speed.  They were sold as piecemeal or abandoned at the foot of the Sierras but while they were used, they were indispensable.

The prairie got the pioneers to the West quickly and with minimum trouble - just what they were made to do.

Next time...the steamboat

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Today in Pioneer History: "On August 27, 1875, hours after being asked to resign as president of the Bank of California, powerful western capitalist, William Ralston is found drowned in San Francisco Bay.  He was one of the first men to build a financial empire in the West when he came to San Francisco from Ohio in 1854.  Ten years later he used his Gold Rush profits to build the Bank of California. It remains a mystery whether Ralston died by foul play."