Travel in America in the 1840s

This YouTube short provides a look at travel in the 1840s.  It opens with our unnamed narrator, who is working as a blacksmith's apprentice in New York.  A stagecoach arrives that it in need of repair, which the blacksmith does.  On that very coach is a letter for the narrator that summons him to Illinois.  He pondered the idea of trekking west alone through the wilderness but rejected the idea.  No, the obvious route was the Mohawk Valley via the Erie Canal.  The following day, he rides with the stagecoach to a point nearest the Erie Canal.  He hikes to the canal and then lucks into a job as a mule boy.  The mules walked along a path beside the canal to tow the barge.  Upon arriving in Buffalo, he found a job as an assistant fireman on a steamship.  Here, he fed wood into the boiler to keep the boilers steaming.  Upon arriving in Detroit, he had earned enough money on his trip that he could pay for train travel.  For those going further west, a wagon train was the obvious choice.

Here is a brief overview of travel by steamship, canal, stagecoach, and train in the 1840s.  Recommended.