A few days ago, I drove to my brother’s place in the country to help plant our family garden. My brother lives 20 miles away. Not far by today’s standards, but it got me to thinking. How easy it is that we zip around our world today. We don’t give it much thought to drive across town or state or fly across country and beyond. Traveling wasn’t always done without much thought. In fact, traveling was something that required plenty of thought and preparation until recently.
That same 20 miles I spent 35 minutes driving last week would have taken a Native American about 5:45. The European pioneers a little longer as they were usually burdened with more stuff, about 6:40. If you were lucky enough to own a horse in those early days, you could make the trip in 4 hours. That’s not counting stops to rest or water a horse. Let’s think about that for a moment. If I were planning to visit my brother 200+ years ago, instead of a half day of my life, it would have been at least three days. If on foot, One day there, one day to visit, one day to get home. Now, let’s suppose I have a wagon and am bringing all the tools, seeds and such to plant the garden. It will take me even longer as a wagon goes slower than a horse and not much faster than on foot. But, at least I can now carry a bunch of stuff with me. Of course, there has to be a road built and those were few and far between in the Ohio frontier.
Speaking of stuff, as more and more new Americans traveled in to the Ohio area, more stuff was needed. By the early 19th century, canals began to appear, first in New York and then in Ohio. Canal boats could transport a lot of stuff, maybe a ton or two, plus people. But they were slow, averaging 4 miles per hour. Then came the trains. There was not a rail line between my house and my brother’s 150 years ago, but if there had been, I could have gotten there in about 50 minutes. Not bad considering I didn’t have to rein a horse or drive a wagon. And talk about moving stuff! Trains could move tons of cargo over long distances. And then, of course cars came along in the 20th century increasing our speed of travel to a maximum of 70 mph. And then came planes, moving through the sky at 300 mph. Forget cross-town, now we can go across the country in less than a day. And, carry more stuff from coast to coast too.
My g-grandfather Henry Green Holbrook, who walked or rode wherever he wanted to go.
It seems we have been on a frenzied quest to move faster and faster over the last 175 years. So, why do we need to improve transportation? To get there faster? To carry more stuff? Is it worth it? Does moving faster make our lives better? It is human nature to think of our generation as better off and smarter than previous ones. But, are we? Back all those years ago when people were trudging along on foot or horseback, I suspect they looked around at where they were going. Probably noticed the wildlife, the contours of the ground, the creeks and rivers. It was a journey. In fact, the word journey in its 13th century usage meant a full day of travel. Journey also means a passage, as from place to place or through at time of life. Today, we have big, fast means of travel. But when was the last time you went on a journey?
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