Overview

"Travel between southwestern towns at the turn of the century was an arduous experience. There were no longer any stagecoaches to carry travelers. Railroads did criss-cross the region, but they did not go through every burg. Motor cars were appearing, but not everyone could afford them. W. B. Chenoweth saw this void in transportation service. He designed a six-cylinder ""motor driven stage coach,"" and in 1907 he coaxed a few passengers into the vehicle for a trip from Colorado City to Snyder, Texas. As soon as passengers became used to Chenoweth's noisy coaches, the dusty paths, and, most important, the quicker trips, motor-coach wildcatters began to crop up across the Southwest. Bus companies grew, merged, and absorbed smaller companies. Author Jack Rhodes has interviewed dozens of owners, executives, drivers, and ticket agents in his research for this book. Those interested in business history or the cultural elements of the era's buses, represented here in dozens of period photographs, will find this an engaging read."

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9781585440153

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Reviews

Buses have been the neglected form of transportation in America. Few except their operators and their customers paid them any mind or attention. Songs were seldom written about them, love was seldom fallen in aboard them, gunmen seldom hijacked them. But that may be changing. There are signs of new interest in those motorcoaches that ply the roads in search of passengers and express, color and glamour. It''s begun with a discovery of its history, with the stories of its pioneers who took old touring cars and their dreams and started bus lines in the early 1900''s. It was a hazardous business that required as much in gambling instincts as it did in business sense. Jack Rhodes has made a significant contribution to that history with this book about the origins of the intercity bus business in Texas and its neighboring states. He tells the stories of the people who started it all. They are the stories that led to the Trailways and the Greyhounds of today. They are stories of visionaries with spirit and grit. --Jim Lehrer

"""Buses have been the neglected form of transportation in America. Few except their operators and their customers paid them any mind or attention. Songs were seldom written about them, love was seldom fallen in aboard them, gunmen seldom hijacked them. ""But that may be changing. There are signs of new interest in those motorcoaches that ply the roads in search of passengers and express, color and glamour. It's begun with a discovery of its history, with the stories of its pioneers who took old touring cars and their dreams and started bus lines in the early 1900's. It was a hazardous business that required as much in gambling instincts as it did in business sense. ""Jack Rhodes has made a significant contribution to that history with this book about the origins of the intercity bus business in Texas and its neighboring states. He tells the stories of the people who started it all. They are the stories that led to the Trailways and the Greyhounds of today. They are stories of visionaries with spirit and grit.""--Jim Lehrer"

Author Information

For most of his life, Jack Rhodes has cultivated an avocational interest in buses and the business of operating them. He is associate professor and director of forensics at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

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