Tombstone Celerity wagon and the Victorian internet

1903! Frank Hitchcock, U.S. Postmaster General, was the first cabinet official to visit Tombstone... holding his hat on the top of the last Modoc Stage up from Benson, celebrating the arrival of the first train from Fairbank at our new station, now the public library. The Modoc was a Concord-type coach, very strong, very heavy. But on almost all the trip from St. Louis, and then from Benson to California, you traveled in a mud-wagon, aka a Celerity wagon. Much lighter, with smaller wheels, and seats that folded into beds. The Celerities were the 'real' stagecoaches, but Hollywood used the Concords with their bright paint jobs.

1903! And that marvel of the Victorian internet, the telegraph, was immediately installed in the new train station. The years went by and it was lost, but recently returned to Mary, our librarian. Today we put it back in the same corner it was in before. Burt Webster from our Historic Preservation Commission came by to tap out SOS and CQD, and I've got another story for the paper!

Pentax K-5 IIs in Sv mode, ISO set at 3200. Used the flash on the telegraph pictures.

Great Story Jon.

Didn't a lot happen in the 20th Century - look at where we are today, all thanks to fossil fuel!

I might try my DA f/2.8 35mm macro for street pictures. It is a good lens. I can always crop, and it actually might be better for a quick snapshot than the 18-270 lens, no need to zoom. And the 35mm replicates my natural field of view, pretty close. We'll see.

As for weight... of course using a small plastic 35mm f/2.4 weighs a lot less that a large zoom. But look, carting a DSLR around with ANY lens weighs... what it does. Not an iPhone! And I'll bet a bit of weight is healthy. Keeps TV-enervated muscles from atrophying. Will try to get used to keeping the camera in the car and carrying it around. A last gasp at looking likeca proper reporter, as I using start ChatGPT and other wordbots to write my articles!