To give room for wandering is it
That the world was made so wide.[222]
Pack outfit owners were a lusty sort. Some of them divided their time between acting as guides and slaughtering game for both meat and hides. A few were wholly unscrupulous, both in their exploitation of the tourists and the Park.[223] Still others were high-type frontiersmen. A description has been left of one Texas Jack, named John Omohondro, originally from Virginia:
He is tall, powerfully built, and as he rode carelessly along, with his long rifle crossed in front of him, he was a picture. He was dressed in a complete suit of buckskin, and wore a flaming red neckerchief, a broad sombrero fastened up on one side with a large eagle feather, and a pair of beautifully beaded moccasins. The costume of the man, his self-confident pose, and the quick, penetrating glance of his keen black eye, would give the impression that he was no ordinary mountaineer.[224]
Still, Texas Jack was quite typical of most mountain scouts, being a man of life and blood and fire, blazing with suppressed excitement in a land of high adventure.
Although the stagecoach took over most of the tourist business after 1880 a few reliable pack masters remained in business. Among these was the firm of Grant, Brogan and Lycan of Bozeman, which conducted a seven-day tour for thirty dollars per person. Jordan and Howell of Cody had a fourteen-day schedule, while Howard Eaton, in his day, personally guided more than a hundred parties around the Park on a twenty-day tour.[225] In 1923 the trail he used was improved, named, and dedicated to his memory. The Howard Eaton Trail parallels the Grand Loop highway. It is maintained by the government and is one of the most scenic bridle paths in America. It was hoped that many people would take advantage of this facility, but its public use is meager.
Travel by stage in Yellowstone was started in 1878 and concluded in 1917. Since a generation of Americans saw the Park in that manner, a description of the procedure would be appropriate. The stagecoach itself was a remarkable vehicle. It was substantially built, quite commodious, and reasonably comfortable. Concord coaches were used; they varied in capacity from seven to as many as thirty-three seats and were drawn by four or six horses, according to size. Great leather springs, called thorough braces, produced a swaying motion which absorbed all but the most violent shocks. The driver’s seat was perched above the body of the coach and underneath was a compartment for mail sacks and express packages. There was a strong platform in the rear of the coach upon which trunks and suitcases were loaded. Harness and other gear were always of the best grade and condition.
Several hundred thousand passengers were taken through Yellowstone by stagecoaches during the thirty-eight years of their operation. The drivers, therefore, were necessarily men of experience and resourcefulness. Indeed, they were a sovereign group and the cynosure of eyes as they cracked their whips and moved three span of horses away at a half-gallop, half-trot, trained, showy style. They were held in high esteem, as well they might be, for each held a position requiring judgment and skill. Several expert drivers who “tooled” Yellowstone coaches were William Woolsey, Hub Counter, and Oscar Scoda. They were firm in resolution, yet polite in manner, and obliging toward passengers. Generally:
... they were good entertainers, capable of making what would otherwise be a long, tedious night ride seem entirely too short to the passenger, who was fortunate enough to have a seat on the box beside him, and hear him relate his experiences with Indian and stage robber.[226]
The driver’s sole duty consisted of handling the stage while on the line; others attended to the feeding and harnessing of the horses, but the teams knew their drivers and responded amazingly to their wills. A driver could flick a fly off the back of his team leaders and bring back his lash without tangling it in the harness or wagon wheels. Day and night these “kings of the whip” flung and pulled the “silk” to those fleet creatures of nature, and over their strength and fears they were ever masters. “Clear the road! Get out of the way thar with your draft teams!” was their good-natured salutation as they swung into view, only to disappear at high speed around a curve or through the lodgepole-lined road. Unrelaxed, they were ever watchful for gullies, boulders, and road agents. As they approached a station they forced their horses into full gallop and brought their coaches up with a grand flourish before the ever-expectant crowd on hand, waiting for friends or the mail. One driver boasted that he could drive his outfit down Beehive Geyser and come out of Old Faithful without losing a hair!