Table of Contents Travelin' Across the Country a learning activity and slide show About the Stage Coach Terms Primary Sources Poem Bibliography

The stagecoach era! What a time it was! Whenever we think of the Wild West the image remains of a stage drawn by four galloping horses off in the distance in a cloud of dust. Actually, it was only a short period of history that stagecoach travel was a part of Western life. From approximately 1850, when small settlements were forming, until the railroad lines were laid throughout the West in the 1890s, stagecoach travel was the main form of transportation.

There was even a stagecoach business in Park City! William Kimball, a Park City resident, started his stagecoach business in 1858 competing with Brigham Young for United States mail contracts. He was sent to England on a Mormon Church mission and when he returned, he started the Park City-Salt Lake City Route. The Kimball Brothers Stage Line operated from 1872 until 1890, when the railroad made its way into the West. Moving quicker as well as transporting more people and mail, the railroad easily put the stagecoach out of business.

In the fall of 1989 the Kimball family presented their only remaining coach as a gift to the Park City Historical Society & Museum.

Travel your own route with the Stage Stop Game, available at the Park City Museum, 528 Main Park City, Ut 84060