Demas Barnes - From th Atlantic to the Pacific, Overland

Demas Barnes was responsible for writing a series of letter on his travels to the West and back in 1865. Barnes was from New York and in the pharmaceutical industry. He decided to travel from New York City to San Francisco and back, documenting his journey in these letters. After he returned, Barnes became a politician and was elected to serve as the Representative of New York's 2nd district in Congress.

Barnes travelled by overland stage the entire duration of his journey and travelled via places such as Chicago and Denver. Barnes wrote a number of letters from his stop in Denver in late June 1865. These detailed his thoughts on the journey so far as well as his ideas of what he believed lay ahead. In his first letter from Denver, Barnes explains how the journey is not what people would expect stating that the long journey was lonely and difficult. He explains that many of his friends from home were envious of his journey but he suggests that if they were there they would not be happy. He explains that the views of journeying to the west were mythical and vastly different to the reality. He explains that wagons were cramped and sod huts were not pleasant to sleep in. In later letters from Denver, Barnes goes on to explain that they are stationed in Denver for longer than expected because coaches ahead of him had been attacked by Native Tribes. This suggests that this was a common event that took place across the Rockies. A further negative he goes on to explain is the weather. He describes one particular event in which the weather changed drastically in a short period of time. He states that the weather fell by 30 degrees in around 10 minutes and a very harsh storm passed through. He claimed that this happened a number of time on his journey and the coach had to make impromptu stops to wait out the storm. Overall, Barnes presents a very negative but realistic view of the overland journey to the west. He tries to disprove traditional views of the people of the east by presenting those ideas a mythical and idealistic.