The Overland Trail

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Looking at the Overland Trail, the Route and the Ride

• The Overland Trail--the route
• Map of the Overland Trail in Colorado and Wyoming
• Map of the trail from LaPorte to Virginia Dale, Larimer County, Colorado
• Distances between the stations from Julesburg to Fort Bridger
• The Concord Coach
• "Overland to California: 1861" Mark Twain
• "Cruel and Unusual Punishment:" Travel by Coach
• "What Torture It Must Have Been" An original poem written after visiting abandoned stage stations along the Overland Trail in Wyoming, June 2001
• Overnight travel in a coach: "The Impossible Dream!"
• Cost of Goods and Supplies in and around Denver, 1865.
• Hints for the Traveler
• The Six-Horse Hitch: Wheelers, Swings, and Leaders

Clickable Map of the Overland Trail: (Julesburg to Fort Bridger)

The Concord Coach Page

• All about the Concord Coach
• The Concord Coach A picture with parts identified
• The Concord Coach Gallery: a collection of original photographs of Concord Coaches
• The The Concord Stage Coach Drivers
• Hints For The Traveler: Spit On The Leeward Side!
• The Overland Stage Line Drivers Including "Buffalo Bill", "Wild Bill" Hickok, and "Uncle Charley", among all the rest!
• The Overland Stage Line Messenger A Most Responsible Position
• Other Employees of the Overland Stage Line
• Riding In A Stage Coach Advice from G. F. Ruxton: 1847
• The Six Horse Hitch
• "Song of the Overland Stage Driver" written in 1865 by Nat Stein, stage driver.
• A Stagecoach Vocabulary
• Western Stagecoach Travel
• Links to "Whips" and Robbers: Good Guys and Bad...
• And... Links to Other Stage Coach Sites

Looking Back: Trappers, Mountain Men and Indians On The Trail

• Looking Back--westward expansion
• Early Indian Trails: footprints of the first Americans
• The "Trapper's Trail"--fur traders into the West
• Naming the Cache la Poudre River
• The Cherokee Trail
• The Mountain Men
• The Mountain Man Rendezvous
• Mountain Man Language
• Indians and the "paper wagons."
• "Nothing Must Stop The Mail!"

Stations, Stops, and Landmarks Along The Overland Trail from Julesburg to Fort Bridger

• Stage Stations on the Overland Trail
• Distances between the stations

The Stage Stations on the Overland Trail from East to West

Julesburg: the Wild West at the "California Crossing"

Following the South Platte: Julesburg to Latham

Fort Sedgwick

Latham: an important junction on the South Platte

Latham to LaPorte, via Denver

Fort St. Vrain along the South Platte River

Fort Vasquez Built in 1837 by Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette

The Fort Morgan Cutoff

Denver: the largest settlement in the West

Namaqua At the Big Thompson, also known as "Mariano's Crossing"

Looking at LaPorte: gateway to the Rockies.

From LaPorte to Virginia Dale along the old Cherokee Trail

Livermore,Colorado home of the historic Forks Cafe, built in 1874

Virginia Dale: site of the only station to remain intact on the Overland Trail

Willow Springs near present day Tie Siding, Wyoming

North into Wyoming: From Willow Springs to The North Platte Crossing

Big Laramie

Fort Halleck

The North Platte Crossing

North Platte to LaClede

La Clede

Big Pond to Fort Bridger

Fort Bridger

Stage Drivers and Other Employees, and also Messengers On the Overland Stage Line

Virginia Dale, Colorado Site of remarkably intact stage station.

Virginia Dale, The Community: Yesterday and Today

The Virginia Dale Stage Station built by Jack Slade

Life at the Station: 1862

A peek at the landscape

• The Rockies
• Steamboat Rock
• Hidden Gold At Robber's Roost
• Graves on the hillside

Other Personalities Along the Overland Trail

• Jules Beni The Showdown with Jack Slade.
• Virginia Dale for whom the station was named.
• Employees of the Stage Line: From Drivers to Stock Tenders.
• Other Employees and Influential People On the Overland Stage Line
• Drivers of the Overland Stage LineIncludes "Wild Bill" and "Buffalo Bill"
• Jim Enos, "Station Hunter"
• Gravesites at Virginia Dale
• Dr. J. H. Finfrock, staff doctor at Fort Halleck
• Ben Holladay, the "Stagecoach King"
• Albert Huston, "Company Hunter."
• Antoine Janis French trader, early settler and peacemaker
• Mariano Medina: "First white'ee man on the Creek!" Thanks to the Jim Baker Party of American Mountain Men for this information!
• Messengers on the Overland Stage Line
• Lady Moon, a "lady" from Livermore...
• The Musgrove Gang Overland Trail horse thieves and cattle rustlers.
• George Pingree a Poudre Pioneer
• Jack Slade, high adventure on the high plains
• The Arrest and Execution of Captain J. A. Slade With a Short Account of His Previous Career.
• Jack Slade's Gravesite
• "Song of the Overland Stage-Driver" written in 1865 by Nat Stein, stage driver.
• Voices From The Past: Accounts of Bread Baking, Rules of the Road, Drunk Drivers...
• Women In Transit--the true pioneers