As families of settlers with their possessions poured into Iowa, regular stagecoach runs were set up to meet the increasing demand. While the first stages were modified horse-drawn wagons, later stagecoaches made by the Downing and Abbot Company were equipped with seats for six to nine passengers inside and up to a dozen riders on top. The coaches used two- and four-horse teams traveling at 8 to 15 miles per hour with storage space to carry luggage, goods and the U.S. mail to Iowa and on to the western settlements. Towns sprung up around the stagecoach stops and along the stagecoach lines. Early stagecoach travel was fraught with danger and long delays from muddy trails, severe winter weather, prairie wildfires and frequent robberies.
The Western Stage Company, headquartered in Dubuque, established the first regular stagecoach line serving Iowa pioneers in 1838. Service was twice a week from Burlington to St. Francesville, Missouri, with the 45-mile trip sometimes taking up to 18 hours. In 1854, the Western Stage Company bought out its competition and became the largest stagecoach operator in Iowa. The company controlled all stage traffic on 14 routes running out of Iowa City. By the end of the 1860s, the coach lines could no longer compete with the railroads and on July 1, 1870, the last Western Stage Company stage coach left Des Moines, ending an historical era of travel.
The Diamond Trail stage route was one of Iowa's most well-known stagecoach trails ran by the Western Stage Company. Stops to change horses were every 20 miles or so. The northern route followed the old Indian Trail, later used as a dragoon trail by the military, from Iowa City to Fort Des Moines. The southern route linked the communities of Burlington and Muscatine on the Mississippi River with the western settlement of Des Moines. The trails crossed at Hinkletown and Sigourney. Much of the Gold Rush traffic of 1848 and 1849 followed the Diamond Trail.
