1860s Travel Times on the Routes to San Francisco CA

My new book, American Migration Routes: Part I – Indian Paths, Post Roads & Wagon Roads, includes “Appendix 1 – 1860s Travel Times on the Routes to San Francisco CA.” That page and map are shown below:

If you have ancestors who traveled to California in the 1860s, you might be interested to know what travel options were available at that time. There were hundreds of thousands of travelers who made that trip in the 1860s. In 1848, there were an estimated eight hundred Americans living in California. After the start of the Gold Rush and Statehood, the first census of 1850 showed a population of 92,500. Ten years later, the 1860 Census showed some 380,000 people in California. Before the first transcontinental railroad began in May 1869, there were both covered wagon routes and stagecoach routes available, as well as ocean steamship routes. Here are the travel route options and travel times for a trip to San Francisco in the 1860s:

1860s Steamship-Railroad-Steamship: 25-30 days. The ocean route began from either New Orleans or New York via Steamship to the Caribbean port of Chagres (New Granada); then across the Isthmus of Panama via the 48-mile-long Panama Railroad to the Pacific port of Balboa; then another Steamship to San Francisco. The New Orleans-San Francisco trip took twenty-five days, while the New York-San Francisco trip took 30 days.

1860s Wagon Train: 4 months. A journey on the California-Oregon Trail via wagon train in the 1860s could average about fifteen miles per day, with as many as 120 overnight stops between Independence MO, and San Francisco CA.

1858-1861 Butterfield Stage Line: 24 days. The distance from either Memphis TN or St. Louis MO to Fort Smith AR to Santa Fe NM to Tucson NM to San Diego CA to Los Angeles CA to San Francisco CA was about 2,750 miles. John Butterfield’s Overland Mail Co. Celerity Stagecoaches averaged about 115 miles per 24-hour day, or 24 days total to make the trip.  Butterfield’s route was some eight hundred miles longer than the Central Overland Trail but saved considerable time by using a snow-free route south of the Rocky Mountains and avoided the Sierra Nevada Mountains as well.

1860-1861 Pony Express (Mail Delivery): 10 days. A non-stop 1,955-mile-horserace from St. Joseph MO to San Francisco CA took an average of ten days. Single horsemen would ride between the relay stations at breakneck speeds, switching mounts every 10-15 miles and then handing their mail pouch off to a new rider after 75-100 miles. The Pony Express disbanded the day after the first transcontinental telegraph message was transmitted from Washington DC to San Francisco CA in October 1861.

1861-1866 Overland Stage Line: 25-days. Ben Holladay’s express company acquired the U.S. Mail Contract to California in 1861 and began service as the Overland Stage Line from Atchison KS to San Franciso CA. The travel route and distance were the same as the Pony Express trail, but due to the mountain ranges en route, the Overland Stages managed about eighty miles per day on average, some 20-30 miles less than the Butterfield Stage Line. Holladay sold his business to Wells Fargo in 1866.

1866-1869 Wells Fargo Express / Overland Stage Line: 25 days. Wells Fargo continued to operate the Overland Stage Line until the day the first train of the transcontinental railroad reached Oakland CA in September 1869.

1869 Pacific Railroad-Overland Route:  66 hours:  An 1869 railroad journey from Omaha to San Francisco could take less than three days (1,997 miles / average speed of 30mph = 2.73 days). 1869 steam locomotives could easily average 40mph on level ground, and the average travel time via railroad from New York NY to San Francisco CA was 96 hours (four days).

Independence MO to San Francisco CA today (The route of the California-Oregon Trail): According to Google Maps, the route, distance, and travel time for a trip by car from Independence MO to San Francisco CA are as follows:  From Independence MO, take MO-12 to I-435, then north to the Kansas City International Airport, then I-29 to Nebraska City NE, then NE-2 to Lincoln NE, then I-80 to San Francisco CA (1,827 miles, 27 hours). The first section from Independence to the Platte River and the section across southern Wyoming are different, but the 1-80 route today is close to the route used by all wagon trains of the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s. The route is also close to the Pony Express Route; the Overland Stage Route; and the Pacific Railroad-Overland Route of 1869.