DVD | Color 55 min | Full Screen. Directed by Ed Fillmer
ISBN 978-0-8026-0449-1
Price:$26.95*Home Video includes Public Library Circulation rights.
ISBN 978-0-8026-0450-7
Price:$249.95**Academic and Institutional price including Public Performance rights for non-paying audiences.
Consumers Reviews
Critics Reviews
"A cowboy's dream becomes reality in this heartfelt documentary chronicling a stagecoach journey from Springfield, Missouri, to Tombstone, Arizona, in 2001. Following the old transcontinental route established by the Butterfield Overland Mail Company in 1858, Rick Hanby sets out in a reconditioned stagecoach for a 1,400-mile, 63-day epic trek. The program documents Hanby's amazing odyssey of determination and compassion as he and three companion complete the landmark journey. The film captures the camaraderie, challenges, and exhaustion facing the cell-phone-wielding modern cowboys, who receive heartfelt receptions from townfolks even as they face such obstacles as freeways, deserts, and open waterways to fulfill their dream."
-Carol Holzberg for Booklist
"Gr. 7 and Up – This documentary chronicles a journey from Missouri to Arizona in a restored 1900’s stagecoach. Modern day cowboy, Rick Hamby, put together a crew and four mules to pull the coach along the historic Butterfield Overland Stage Company route. Bearing a sign, “Tombstone or Bust,” the team allowed two months to travel 1400 miles. Ranchers and local villagers helped with livestock feed and bean dinners for the crew. On visits to schools and nursing homes, the group offered mini history lessons about the first transcontinental mail drop and stagecoach passenger service. A narrator provides background information. The all male crew dressed in period costume and had some modern conveniences, such as walkie-talkies. A portion of the trail was highway, but much of the travel was across dirt roads and open range, making for a bumpy and dusty ride. During the most desolate stretch of trail along the Mexican border, they were cognizant of the dangers they might face in the 21st century and were armed with pistols and vigilant about warning of Mexican desperados and drug smugglers. Happily uneventful, the sluggish trip may not be packed with excitement, but viewers get a sense of what early travelers experienced and feel the crew’s uncertainty of what lay ahead."
-Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY -- School Library Journal
SummaryThe Stagecoach Journey documents the adventure of a 21st century cowboy who followed his dream of rediscovering the romance and adventure of the 19th century American West. In March of 2001, Rick Hamby set out to retrace the route of the historic Butterfield Overland Stagecoach from Springfield, Missouri to Tombstone, Arizona. Leaving the Public Square in Springfield, just steps away from the original site of the former Butterfield Overland station, he embarked on an epic sixty-three day journey in an authentic restored Butterfield Stagecoach.
Along the way, his quest to rediscover the spirit of the American cowboy resonated with people from the Ozarks, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona. His two-month odyssey included many stops at schools and nursing homes along the way to educate young people about the history of America's first transcontinental mail and passenger service, and to reacquaint older persons with the sights, sounds, and smells of horse drawn transportation they relied upon as youngsters.
The stagecoach participants encountered dangers of the 21st century Wild West as they contended with the harsh realities of illegal immigration and drug smugglers.
But the stagecoach crew also appreciated the warm and heartfelt reception from farmers, small townspeople and ranchers, who helped tend and feed the horse and mule teams, put on dozens of bean dinners and took turn riding the stage a few miles to relive a bygone way of life in the American West.
Their journey through history and across present day, small town, rural America makes for a compelling and intriguing program that bridges the centuries.
