Newton Stagecoach Route

[Abby Brown] A long time ago, there were no cars and no nice, smooth highways to travel from here to there. But there were horses, and those horses could pull stagecoaches filled with people and goods. Let's use our imaginations and this guide to explore the stagecoach days of Iowa.

(Abby holds up a small, paperback book. On the cover are three pictures. A white sign with a drawing of a team of horses pulling a large coach over the number 5. A historical picture of a slat, wooden barn and a black and white photograph of a dirt road. The book title reads “1853 Newton Stagecoach History and Guide.”)

(Map marking Guthrie County in south central Iowa.)

People have always needed a way to travel. Before there were cars, there were trains. And before there were trains, there were horses.

In the 1850s, before trains created a line, or route, through Iowa, there was a stagecoach line. The route through Guthrie County was laid out by E.B. Newton.

Traveling by stagecoach was a rough ride. It could only cover about 5 to 9 miles per hour.

By comparison, today, a car on a highway can travel 60 to 70 miles an hour.

Stagecoaches had to stop often to care for the horses. And bad weather caused lots of challenges. Horses and coaches might get stuck in mud and sloppy roads.

Can you imagine what a major undertaking it would have been for you to travel by stagecoach to visit family or friends?

The Guthrie County Tourism team put together a guide that tells about the stops that were here on the stagecoach route from about 1855 to 1868. Signs like these show visitors interesting places along the route that runs about 29 miles.

(A horizontal white sign with a black drawing of a team of horses pulling a large coach above a square white sign with the number 13 in black.)

Just down the road is a sign for Gopher Station. In 1854, Gopher Station was a stop on the stagecoach route where a popular hotel stood.

(A square wooden sign that reads “Site of Gopher Station 1854 Built by John Betts.”)

Today, just like way back then, the Newton stagecoach route is off the beaten path. It's mostly scenic gravel roads, making it easy to imagine what it was like to travel this beautiful area in a bumpy stagecoach.

You might even spot some wildlife.

(A doe and her fawn running through a farm field.)

(Two large, turkey vultures lifting off from a metal farm field gate.)

There are 19 signs noted in the guide. Most of them are there to memorialize something that's no longer in existence, a piece of important history. Like sign number 2. The stagecoach would have traveled right by here, and anyone on board would have seen the Kunkle cabin, the first permanent log home in Guthrie County.

Sign number 4 is along Wagon Road. The stagecoach route here went through a town called Morrisburg. It's a ghost town now, meaning it disappeared. But the cemetery is still here.

Morrisburg became a ghost town because when the railroad was built, it didn't quite follow the stagecoach line — took a little bit different path. So without people coming through, Morrisburg couldn't survive as a town.

For a short time in history, only about 13 years or so, people traveled by stagecoach through Guthrie County until the railroad was built.

Trains were much faster and more reliable than horses, so stagecoach travel went away.

But its history is not forgotten.

Every county in Iowa offers a clever way to travel through its history. Here in Guthrie County. We had fun investigating the old stagecoach days.

Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.