As the Missouri River provided the first access to the southwest Iowa region, stage coaches were the second to give public transportation service and their routes provided some interesting history

    Frequent stopping places were needed for the stage coaches as they rolled through the area of Oak Township. One of these was the Plumer Settlement which was a stage coach 'station'. There accommodations for travelers were limited but they could sleep on the floor of the large Plumer home which still stands as a comfortable reminder of a pioneer shelter, on Highway 275, north of Glenwood.

    The county was served, in a very loose sense, by three stage lines: one north from St. Joseph, Missouri, through Tabor and Glenwood to Council Bluffs. The others were part of the Western Stage Line, one from Council Bluffs to Des Moines, coming south to the Plumer Settlement, easterly to Stage Coach Inn, on southeast again before striking north and east. The third linked the counties in south Iowa from the nearest eastern rail terminal.

     Nor was "getting there half the fun." An early-day writer reported that the life of a traveler in those days "was by no means a pleasant one. When steep hills must be ascended, or muddy bottoms crossed, the passenger - wearied as he was by the swaying and rough usage of hard driving - was expected to descend and mount the hill or cross the bottom on foot." Upsets in crossing creeks were frequent occurrences and much mail arrived soaked and muddy. In December, 1869, the last of the stage coaches rolled through Mills County.

~ source: Ghost Towns of Mills County Iowa, 1975, p. 29-34, by Allen Wortman, used with permission.