Stagecoach stop from above: LAPC & FOWC

When you drive by this old stagecoach stop on the east side of Steens Mountain in Oregon, it just looks like a couple piles of rocks in the distance.

From a closer distance, it still looks like piles of rubble.

However, when you see it from above with a drone, it looks completely different. You can clearly see the walls of the structure on the left.

The building on the right looks like this from above. There are remnants of the rock wall on the west side of the structure, but the wooden parts have fallen to the ground.

In other environments, the wood would have deteriorated by now. However, this structure is just north of the Alvord Desert, which gets an average of 7 inches of precipitation a year.

I am reposting some facts related to stagecoach travel from one of my previous posts.

In the late 1800s to early 1900s, stagecoach routes crisscrossed the West. On the more heavily traveled routes, there were stops every 25 miles or so. Why that distance? That’s about how far a team of horses pulling wagons full of goods and passengers could travel. Their progress was slow because of difficult terrain and weather that could quickly change from scorching heat to bone-chilling cold.

Some of these stations were just for changing horse teams, while others had accommodations available for travelers. The stops in Fields and Frenchglen in Oregon offered more options for weary travelers. One stop near the one pictured above charged 25 cents for overnight lodging and meals. The charge for the care of each horse was an additional 25 cents.

Travel along these stagecoach routes was not fast. For example, the east-west route from Ontario, Oregon, to Burns, Oregon, took approximately 40 hours. Today, the 130-mile route takes 2 hours 12 minutes by car. But imagine all the sights those early travelers must have seen on those slow journeys…

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