Travel between Nebraska and New Orleans in 1856

Jaymz Connelly

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I am currently planning a story that takes place close to Ft Laramie, Nebraska and New Orleans. I’ve found enough info that I’m fairly confident my MC can take a stagecoach from Ft Laramie to Council Bluffs, then a steamboat down the Missouri to St Louis. There I’m assuming he’ll need to change to a different steamer for the trip to New Orleans. I’m figuring that trip will take about 6 weeks from what I’ve extrapolated from the info I’ve been able to find.

But here’s my problem.

Due to a family catastrophe, a letter needs to be sent to the MC’s father (near Ft Laramie) and then he will need to travel to New Orleans as quickly as possible. If I use the same route as the MC took, it will take 6 weeks for the letter to get to Dad, then another 6 weeks for Dad to make the trip down to New Orleans.

Is there any way the letter and/or Dad can get there faster? The family is quite wealthy, so expense isn’t an issue.

The letter is sent around the 15[SUP]th[/SUP] August, possibly a couple days later but definitely no earlier. If it takes a total of 12 weeks for letter and trip, that’s going to make it December before they can leave New Orleans to return to Nebraska. Which means they’ll be stuck along the route somewhere as the steamers cannot operate during the winter in the north of the country.

Ideally, I would really like for Dad to get to New Orleans by the end of September, and then they can begin the journey home in mid-October. Also, there will be at least 4 people and possibly 6 for the return journey home, so that’s not going to be a fast trip.

I can’t change the dates at all. I need the MC to arrive in New Orleans at the beginning of August 1856, and the letter can’t be sent to Dad before mid-August.

Thanks and reps to anyone who can help me with my problem!
 

Jaymz Connelly

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My first thought was to send a wire telegram instead of a physical letter, but looks like they weren't running until 1861. How solid is your 1856 date? :D

The 1856 is rock solid, unfortunately. It would have been so much easier if I could have set it when the railroad went through. The Last Island hurricane is a main feature of the story and it happened 10 August 1856, so everything has to revolve around that.
 

King Neptune

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I can't find it now, but I think that six weeks on a steamboat from Council Bluffs to New Orleans is a bit high. The Mississippi River part would have been no more than two weeks, and that was most of the distance. The Missouri River part would have been slower, but not that much slower.
 

Jaymz Connelly

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Oh, that's good to know! I'd be very happy if I could shorten the MC's trip.

I was thinking 2 weeks on the stagecoach from Ft Laramie to Council Bluffs, then a week on the Missouri and three weeks on the Mississippi.
 
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King Neptune

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Have you ever read accounts of riding in mail coaches in the Old West? They moved. They weren't as fast as a car would be, but it would have done more than twenty miles a day, but they wouldn't have made forty miles a day, unless everything was perfect. In the 1870's it would have been 3.5 week trip, but it would have been a little slower in 1856. I think that a little over four weeks would be about right, but that's assuming that there is enough water in the Missouri River.
 

Jaymz Connelly

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Have you ever read accounts of riding in mail coaches in the Old West? They moved. They weren't as fast as a car would be, but it would have done more than twenty miles a day, but they wouldn't have made forty miles a day, unless everything was perfect. In the 1870's it would have been 3.5 week trip, but it would have been a little slower in 1856. I think that a little over four weeks would be about right, but that's assuming that there is enough water in the Missouri River.

I have read everything I could find about coaches, which admittedly hasn't been a whole lot.

So, just over four weeks for the MC's trip? And no way to do it faster? I'm assuming the boats would be slower going upstream than down.
 

King Neptune

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I have read everything I could find about coaches, which admittedly hasn't been a whole lot.

So, just over four weeks for the MC's trip? And no way to do it faster? I'm assuming the boats would be slower going upstream than down.


Yes, the boats would be slower upstream. I don't remember what kind of a water level there would be at that time of year, and that makes a difference. If you can find a copy of Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, then look for the tables of record times up and down the river; typical times were somewhat slower but more than half the rate. The section from New Orleans to St. Louis was fast. The times of the Missouri were slow. I thought that there would be lists of times for various routes somewhere online, but either I'm looking in the wrong place, or there are no such lists.

And in Roughing It Twain described in great detail taking a mail coach west from St. Joseph in 1860. I don't remember the speed, but it wasn't a well established raod, so they they didn't go full speed.
 
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Jaymz Connelly

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Yes, the boats would be slower upstream. I don't remember what kind of a water level there would be at that time of year, and that makes a difference. If you can find a copy of Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, then look for the tables of record times up and down the river; typical times were somewhat slower but more than half the rate. The section from New Orleans to St. Louis was fast. The times of the Missouri were slow. I thought that there would be lists of times for various routes somewhere online, but either I'm looking in the wrong place, or there are no such lists.

And in Roughing It Twain described in great detail taking a mail coach west from St. Joseph in 1860. I don't remember the speed, but it wasn't a well established raod, so they they didn't go full speed.

Thank you very much for your help with this. I'll see if I can find a copy of Life on the Mississippi. I have read an excerpt from Roughing It about the mail coach, but I don't recall him mentioning how fast it went, just that it was very uncomfortable and they were packed in with all the mail and jounced around severely. I'll have to look up that excerpt again and see if I just missed the time thing.
 

Marlys

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Does the father have to be home in Ft. Laramie when the letter gets sent to him? What if he were on a long-planned visit to a sister in St. Louis? Would decrease the amount of time for the letter to get to him and for him to get to New Orleans.
 

Jaymz Connelly

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Unfortunately, all of the father's family is in New Orleans. He only has the one brother.

I was thinking, if there were no other way to shorten the time before Dad got to New Orleans, I'd have him send the MC down and tell him he'd join him in September.
 

Jaymz Connelly

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Your first problem is that Ft. Laramie is actually in Wyoming.

caw

:ROFL: I'm looking at an old map and it has Nebraska going from Iowa to Utah. It's got 'Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1853...' on it. I wasn't sure if there had been changes between then and 1856.
 

King Neptune

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:ROFL: I'm looking at an old map and it has Nebraska going from Iowa to Utah. It's got 'Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1853...' on it. I wasn't sure if there had been changes between then and 1856.

I wondered about that also, but Nebraska remained a territory with those boundaries until 1867.
 

Jaymz Connelly

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I wondered about that also, but Nebraska remained a territory with those boundaries until 1867.

The map I am using for reference has Texas, then above that is Indian Territory (where present day Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado are), then Nebraska stretching between Iowa and Utah, and above Nebraska is Northwest Territory that covers what would become North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and part of Wyoming. The North West Territory is bordered on the west by Washington and Oregon and on the east by Minnesota.
 

jclarkdawe

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You need to understand how the country was set up at that point. In the eastern US (east of the Mississippi), railroads were fairly well built up and many existed. Telegraphs, by their nature, can send messages that are not in a straight line. I think there was a track from New Orleans to Chicago, but if not, there would have been something going east from New Orleans, which could then be sent west.

You can assume that the telegraph run with the railroad, it not a bit before. Here's the location of a map from 1856 showing the status -- http://americanantiquarian.org/earl...original/2c8a67aff67763b34a6fcd3a9751e24c.jpg. I can't say it's an easy map to work with, but worth looking at.

The Mississippi and Missouri Railroad was chartered in 1853 to cross Iowa. Unfortunately for you, it went across the state rather slowly. I'm not sure where it ended in 1856. But it's safe to assume that where it ended was the western end of the telegraph. This gets you to within 800 miles of Fort Laramie and potentially within 500 miles. Figure one day to get a message from New Orleans to this point.

From there, the fastest means of travel is horseback. Depending upon the economy, there's probably some employed rider available for the right amount of change. If you're in condition, and it's worth it to you, fifty miles a day on horseback is possible. This is especially true if you can swap out horses as you go along.

We're talking between 10 and 20 days to get the message to Fort Laramie.

There are several stories from the West about riders beating steamships between two points in an emergency. There were endurance races later in the century. HIDALGO is probably made up, but there's substantial information on rides like this being accomplished. The Pony Express came about only a few years later. The idea of the Pony Express, in part, was because of the ability of horsemen to travel long distances.

Properly presented, I think you can get a message from New Orleans to Fort Laramie within your time constraints.

Jim Clark-Dawe
 

King Neptune

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The map I am using for reference has Texas, then above that is Indian Territory (where present day Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado are), then Nebraska stretching between Iowa and Utah, and above Nebraska is Northwest Territory that covers what would become North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and part of Wyoming. The North West Territory is bordered on the west by Washington and Oregon and on the east by Minnesota.

That was right for that time. Something like the following maps. It wasw a moving target, because territories were being organized ort reorganized every few years.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reynolds's_Political_Map_of_the_United_States_1856.jpg
or
[url]http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/america/unitedstates/1783/1848/1853/kan-neb.htm

or
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/Ima...&view=docDisplay&documentId=GALE|PC3048587094
or
https://www.google.com/search?q=neb...=Gm-SWNfxDoekjwSntZHoBA#imgrc=wObT6GIYjSr9PM:

[/URL]
 
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Jaymz Connelly

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Thank you all for the wonderful help! I think I've now got it worked out logistically how to move my characters about and not have them stuck halfway home on the return journey!
 

Tsu Dho Nimh

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It occurred to me that your characters would be going down the North Platte River across Nebraska, then the Platte.

The Platte river valley was the route for several major emigrant trails, including the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails.

1856 was after the huge Mormon Migration to the Salt Lake area and the grass was still recovering from the huge numbers of wagon teams and loose horses and cattle. So they have something to gripe about. But the increased traffic improved the chances of mail.

The Mormon "Handcart Companies" were on the road that year, specifically the last two companies that left Florence NE (Omaha area) late. You characters might see them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_handcart_pioneers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_handcart_pioneers#1856:_Willie_and_Martin_handcart_companies


http://www.westerncoversociety.com/mwe.htm covers the mail system along the emigrant trails

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Platte_River_Road
 

Jaymz Connelly

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Thanks very much for the links, Tsu Dho Nimh! I'll have a look at them.
 

neandermagnon

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Were people using carrier/homing pigeons in the USA at that time? I know the use of carrier pigeons dates back a lot earlier than this but that doesn't mean they were ubiquitous throughout history, and I don't know much of the finer details of carrier pigeon history. But if it is plausible, that might cut a lot of the time it takes for the message to reach them.
 

Tsu Dho Nimh

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Were people using carrier/homing pigeons in the USA at that time? I know the use of carrier pigeons dates back a lot earlier than this but that doesn't mean they were ubiquitous throughout history, and I don't know much of the finer details of carrier pigeon history. But if it is plausible, that might cut a lot of the time it takes for the message to reach them.

That only works if the sender has a pigeon that will "home" to where the recipient is. If the recipient is in Ft Laramie, the pigeon has to have been trained there and transported to New Orleans to be used taking messages back to the Fort.
 

Jaymz Connelly

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While carrier pigeons would be a neat idea, and not entirely implausible as one brother lives in New Orleans and the other brother travelled to just north of Ft Laramie, I've decided to go with telegraph to almost the border of Iowa and then very fast rider (taking approx. 10 days) to the Ft Laramie area.

I think I can get the message received and Dad on his way to New Orleans by the end of August to arrive in New Orleans by the end of September at the latest - which is what I needed as they need to be back to Nebraska before ice closes the Missouri River.
 

King Neptune

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As long as it seems plausible no one will worry about the details, and plausibility is pretty wide with things like that.