SCHROON LAKE CONCORD COACH
Body painted yellow with orange trim. Interior is russet leather.
The Concord coaches have become a more familiar sight, perhaps, to the youngsters of today than to their parents, for television with its Wild West movies has made the Concord the trademark of the west.
The opening of the gold fields in California—the Comstock Lode, the Nevada silver camps—the famous Wells Fargo saga—all these were made possible because of the Concord coach. The men who drove the coaches and their exploits have become the folklore of America.
Until the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the two choices open to a traveller to the west were the long and arduous voyage by sea around the Cape of Good Hope or the equally dangerous trip by stagecoach over the towering mountains and down precipitous grades. Rigid time schedules were maintained; the six horses used on many of the stages were pushed to their capacity, and the drivers who trekked over the Sierra Nevada made the Placerville grade the busiest thoroughfare west of the Rockies. Dozens of Concord coaches rolled on daily schedules and scaled the heights of 7200 feet as a matter of course.
The Concord was of the same body form as the oldtime English coaches of the 18th century. The two lengthwise “thorough braces” fashioned of several strips of leather stitched together, absorbed some of the shock. The body hung on these braces with the driver’s seat high in front and an integral part of the coach. Inside there was room for 9 passengers (though often more were crowded in) and the capacity of the coaches was 4,000 lbs. The bodies were rounded and smoothly curved with drop windows and painted decorations of eagles, scrolls and pastoral scenes. Curtains and upholstery were most often of russet leather.
There was another version of the Concord coach—similar in appearance, but specifically designed for the Eastern part of the United States and of lighter construction. These coaches were the connecting links to the railroads until a surprisingly recent time. Such a model is the one illustrated below. It was operated by Waddel & Emerson and ran between the railroad station at Riverside, New York, and the steamboat landing on Schroon Lake, near Pottersville. From there, passengers took the steamer Evelyn to the village of Schroon at the head of the lake or intermediate points.
Photo—Gift of Mr. Albert Jacob, Jr. Scarsdale, New York—showing the Schroon Lake coach at intersection of Routes 8 and 9 at Loon Lake in the Town of Chester, Warren County. Photo taken about 1907 or 1908.]
