The
modern‑day Wells Fargo organization realizes how important
these vehicles are to history and to the company’s image,
so they regularly have 12 of them on the road making appearances
at parades, Wells Fargo Bank openings, fairs and selected
events throughout the country.
Each
coach used for parades is an authentic, Wells Fargo‑approved
reproduction, pulled by a specially trained team of horses,
guided by an experienced stagecoach driver.
All
but one of the coaches are owned by Wells Fargo, said Debbie
Gallegos, manager of the Wells Fargo Anthem branch. And
that stagecoach is the one owned by Hatch.
It
would be hard not to mention some of the historical figures
involved in the Wells Fargo legacy,
especially the bandits.
The
most successful of these outlaws was Charles Bolton (Black
Bart), who during a six‑year period held up 30 coaches.
Other famous historical names who robbed stages were Jessie
and Frank James, Cole and Bob and James Younger–all characters
right out of the history books.
They’ve
been portrayed on countless TV shows, movies and western
novels. Stagecoaches were an integral part of life long
before the horseless carriage and trains came along.
Hatch
said he has built and restored all types of horse‑drawn
equipment in his lifetime. He made one thing very clear
about his stagecoach.
“This
is not a restoration,” he said. “Everything on it is new.
I had some help with the lanterns–they’re antique–and the
wheels. The rest I built myself.”
The
original coaches were built high and wide to handle the
rough, rutted roads of the new country. The curved frame
of the body gave it strength, and allowed a little more
elbow room. The perfectly formed, fitted and balanced wheels
stood up to decades of drenching mountain storms and parching
desert heat, according to the Wells Fargo
Web
site.One of the unique features of the coaches was the suspension.
Instead of steel springs, the coach body rested on leather
braces made of strips of thick bullhide. This feature spared
the horses from jarring and gave the stagecoach a (sometimes)
gentle, rocking
motion.
The
coaches weighed about 2500 pounds, and cost $1,100 each,
including leather and damask cloth interior.
Hatch’s
coach is hauled in a state‑of‑the‑art
18‑wheeler which Hatch drives himself. This doesn’t
mean it wouldn’t make it from destination to destination
like the old days. It’s just that Interstate
17 or 10 wouldn’t be a very safe place to drive a horse‑drawn
coach today.
“I’m
the only one who owns his own stagecoach and I make about
one appearance a week.”
Definitely
not a newcomer to the cowboy lifestyle, Hatch has been riding
for 60 years and has been around some outstanding livestock.
“The
good ones (horses) you get attached to,” he said. “Just
like people. There are some you just don’t want to be around.
I’ve been lucky, I’ve had some good horses in my life. I’ve
taken horses
other people didn’t want or couldn’t handle and made good
horses out of them.”
It’s
all a matter of how your handle them, Hatch said.
“They’re
just like children,” he said. “It’s a matter of doing the
right thing at the right time. You’ve got to scold them
at the right time and love them at the right time.”
