Camp Soapbox | JR Elrod

Your Camp Counselor here.
Grab your coffee and pull up the nearest stump.
All right, campers…
Yesterday we watched a little steam locomotive named Tom Thumb lose a race…
…and still manage to change history.
Today…
We’re going to see what happened after everyone went home.
Hang on…
I need to adjust the Flux Capacitor.
WOOP… WOOP… WOOP… WOOP…
There.
1840.
Take a slow look around.
Something feels different.
Listen.
Way off in the distance…
You hear it.
A whistle.
Just one.
A few years ago, hearing a steam locomotive was something people talked about for weeks.
Now…
You’re beginning to hear them everywhere.
The little experiment Peter Cooper believed in…
Was becoming an industry.
Railroads were spreading across America faster than anyone imagined.
The Baltimore & Ohio had started the race.
Now it had company.
The Mohawk & Hudson Railroad in New York showed that trains could do in less than an hour
what once took nearly a full day by canal.
The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company had already built the longest railroad in the
world, stretching 136 miles from Charleston to Hamburg.
The Boston & Providence Railroad was linking one growing city to another.
The Columbia Railroad in Pennsylvania was helping connect farms, canals, and markets across the
Keystone State.
Almost every year…
Another railroad appeared.
Then another.
Then another.
Communities that had never dreamed of hearing a locomotive whistle suddenly found iron rails
being laid across nearby fields.
Owning a railroad connection quickly became a matter of survival.
If the railroad came to your town…
Business followed.
New families arrived.
Stores opened.
Factories were built.
Hotels sprang up.
Land values climbed.
If it didn’t…
Sometimes your town slowly faded away while the next town down the road prospered.
Every merchant wanted a railroad.
Every farmer hoped one would come close enough to reach his land.
Because if the railroad came to your town…
Opportunity usually came with it.
America wasn’t just getting bigger.
It was getting closer together.
Now stop for a minute.
Imagine you’re a young husband and wife living in New York.
You’ve heard stories about rich farmland in Ohio.
Indiana.
Illinois.
A generation earlier…
Making that journey meant loading everything you owned into a wagon.
Saying goodbye to everyone you knew.
And spending weeks…
Sometimes months…
Crossing rough roads with no guarantee you’d ever arrive.
The railroad didn’t replace the wagon overnight.
Far from it.
But it changed the math.
Part of that journey suddenly became faster.
Safer.
More predictable.
Families began moving west in greater numbers.
New farms appeared.
Small settlements became towns.
Towns became cities.
And every one of those places needed the same things.
Food.
Lumber.
Bricks.
Glass.
Nails.
Stoves.
Tools.
Everything needed to build a home.
Everything needed to build a business.
Everything needed to build a community.
The railroad wasn’t just moving people.
It was helping build America.
Almost overnight…
Travel that once took weeks…
Could now be measured in days.
Letters arrived sooner.
News spread faster.
Businesses reached customers they had never been able to reach before.
Markets grew.
Factories expanded.
For the first time…
America began to feel like one connected country instead of a collection of distant settlements.
But…
Come with me.
Let’s walk over to that freight depot.
The train has just rolled in.
Workers are unloading barrels of flour.
Crates of tools.
Lumber.
Mail.
Dry goods.
Everything the town needs.
Now watch carefully.
Does the train take that freight to the general store?
No.
Does it deliver lumber to the carpenter?
No.
Does it haul flour to the local baker?
No.
The train has done its job.
Now it’s someone else’s turn.
Standing just outside the depot…
Waiting patiently…
Is our old friend…
The waggoneer.
He loads the freight onto his wagon.
Checks the harness.
Climbs onto the seat.
Snaps the reins.
And finishes the trip.
Meanwhile…
The stagecoach rolls into town carrying passengers.
Mail.
Important documents.
Small parcels.
Each vehicle has its own job.
Each one depends on the others.
Funny, isn’t it?
The railroad was one of the greatest transportation breakthroughs in history.
Yet it still couldn’t solve the last mile.
Without the waggoneer…
The freight stopped at the depot.
The farther we travel through history…
The more one thing becomes clear.
America wasn’t replacing one form of transportation with another.
She was building a transportation system.
Ships carried freight across the ocean.
Canals carried it inland.
Railroads carried it across states.
Stagecoaches carried passengers, mail, and small packages.
The waggoneer carried the heavy freight the rest of the way.
Each one solved a different problem.
Each one made the next one possible.
Sound familiar?
Today your online order might travel by ship…
Then by train…
Then by truck…
Before finally arriving at your front door.
The equipment has changed.
The idea hasn’t.
Now folks…
Here’s where the questions begin.
What if Peter Cooper had never built Tom Thumb?
What if America had looked at steam power and decided…
“Nah… we’ll stick with horses.”
Would America have spread west as quickly?
Would small towns have grown into great cities?
Would factories have been able to expand the way they did?
Would millions of people have packed up everything they owned and headed west in search of a
better life?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
History has a funny way of changing direction because of one idea…
One invention…
Or one person willing to try something everyone else thought was impossible.
And remember…
We’re still asking the same question we started with.
What would America look like if trucks had never been invented?
We’re not there yet.
We’ve still got a long journey ahead of us.
But every stop along the way brings us a little closer to the answer.
Because if you don’t remember anything else from these articles…
Remember this.
If you drive it…
Eat it…
Wear it…
Smoke it…
Drink it…
Or drive on it…
Somewhere along the line…
A truck touched it.
And for many things…
It touched it more than once.
Tomorrow…
We’re going to spend an entire day riding beside the waggoneer.
No railroads.
No canals.
Just one man…
One wagon…
A team of horses…
And a road that will make you appreciate every air-ride seat ever built.
Until then…
I need to make one more adjustment to the Flux Capacitor.
Keep the coffee hot.