On this #TBT, we continue our exploration of the historic stage roads of Sheridan County. This week’s post comes from a sign originally placed by the Sheridan County Historic Preservation Commission at Keystone Road and South Dry Creek a decade ago.
This segment of the Rock Creek to Montana stage road between the Union Pacific Railroad in southern Wyoming and the Northern Pacific Railroad along the Yellowstone River in southern Montana – from Sheridan to the State Line – was the original Bozeman Trail opened in 1864. Look east, up the draw, to view faint traces of the Bozeman Trail/Stage Road coming down the hill to the right of the present county road and intersecting it at the base of the hill.
In 1879-1882, M.T. Patrick’s Rock Creek to Montana stage line used Concord coaches in the summer but changed to lighter buckboards in winter conditions to carry mail and passengers over the route. The service schedule was 96 hours in the summer and 120 hours in the winter between Rock Creek and the Yellowstone River, a distance of nearly 400 miles.
The average run carried 400 pounds of mail and one to two passengers. From 1882 until the railroad in Sheridan County was completed in 1894, the stage lines shortened and their number increased.
PHOTO: Wyoming State Archives
