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How much would it cost?
Grab your Excelsior Diary that contains most things a world without internet would care to know in one little leather bound pocket size packet.
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Before we start planning our journey we just need to know a few details -
Our book tells us about traveling the West Coast of the United States.
It looks like each route is beginning from San Francisco and each different railroad company had a name that then became an abbreviation for space saving purposes in the printing of information.
The Los Angeles Terminal Railroad is L.A.T.R. , Oregon Railroad is O.R. and etc...
Wow, did you notice the p. for Population... this is showing the how many people live in that specific location on the route and if there is no number given then the location is very smaill with under 50 peolple.
It looks like Chico had 5,500 people. Today in 2026 there are about 105,000 people
Lets move on. You just arrived in San Francisco California in 1896 and now you want to get home to Chico California.
Looks like its 186 miles from San Francisco and it will cost me $5.96.
How long will it take?
In this time period its likely trains on the West Coast were traveling about 25 mph. As the actual tracks became better built the trains could go faster with less risk of accidents.
Olay So 186 miles divided by 25 mph ...it looks like about seven and a half hours, probably longer with station stops along the way.
I read that stage coach travel was 10 cents per mile, and traveled about 9 miles per hour on flat terrain. That would cost $18.60 and take about 24 hours most likely.
Get the digital downloads and keep on travelling
These downloadable PDFs share more of the history and insights from the diary.
TIME TRAVELLING JOURNEY - The Western U.S. In 1896
PACKET 1 -PDF 30325a 10 pages
PACKET 2-PDF 30325b 9 pages
PACKET 3-PDF 30325c 10 pages
