Excellent book on the history of some of Wells Fargo's top express messengers, including dismissing many urban legends. (Among these is that the term "riding shotgun" was used for the express messengers at the time they were riding next to the driver of a stagecoach; Boessenecker shows the term only came into use in the 20th century.

Boessenecker clearly knows his stuff. He moves from the express riders on stages to express messengers guarding Wells Fargo cars on trains. He also looks at some of the company's detectives.

The last chapter, "A Legacy Squandered," is also worth it. Boessenecker notes that Wells Fargo had been in banking as well as express shipping from its early days, but left the shipping business after Woodrow Wilson forcibly consolidated all express companies during WWI. (Another stupidity of his.)

So, they were just a banking company after that. And primarily California. Then, in the 1990s and beyond, a spate of mergers — starting with that with Norwest in 1998 — led the company to both get greedy in its banking practices, as we all know, and to also abandon its history. I had no idea it has a dozen museums. Nor that it has removed authentic firearms from them, or stopped investing in maintaining much of that history.

Boessenecker also notes that the greed — and the failure to thoroughly address it — also cuts against the company's early history.

Anyway, this is a great book all around.

Take a ride back to the wild west! Jump on a stagecoach and gear up for the adventure of a lifetime.

This book was amazing in so many ways. We know about the background of the detectives, the pony express riders, and the men who risked their lives to transfer gold dust, bullion and so much more across the plains. With the gold rush in California, there was a more urgent need for bonded men who could safeguard the money and gold dust being transferred, but that did not keep desperadoes from trying to get rob the stagecoaches.
That is where the detectives would pop in, and track down the men that were responsible for the robberies.

We know the stories, but we don't know the men. Now we do. John Boessenecker does a great job in bringing these legendary figures to life, and bringing their stories to a much broader public.
I absolutely loved the book, and getting to read about several places that were familiar. Mount Shasta, Klamath Falls, and so much more - old stomping grounds for me.

Great history, and well done!

I Read this book to fulfil the goal read a western. Not my favorite genre for sure. I find it bloody and gruesome. still it entertained me, i even chuckled in a few places.