The Circle E Western Store has restored a fully functioning stagecoach from the Butterfield Stage Lines. It was prominently displayed on the square along side representatives of Circle E.
“A stagecoach gives people the opportunity to see how much more convenient travel is today than it used to be,” store manager Andy Herndon said. “People used to have to get up on that stagecoach in Decatur, Texas and travel to Fort Worth, Texas in a day and a half, where now they do it in an hour and a half. So it really lets people see how much more convenient and comfortable they have it now.”
Circle E came into possession of the stagecoach after the late Ed Reed found the stagecoach in Decatur, Texas. His wife gave the stagecoach to the Circle E family who have been restoring the stagecoach for the past year. They have been able to give people rides in the stagecoach around fairgrounds and the park.
“It was downtrodden, to say the least,” Herndon said in regards to the stagecoach’s original condition. “Some of the parts had to be remade from the original specifications and repainted. It’s almost a complete renovation of the old stagecoach compared to what it used to be.”
The stagecoach contains a lot of value to the Circle E family. The Circle E family will continue to let people see and experience the stagecoach in parades and other community events. They hope that the stagecoach will also carry value for the community of Sulphur Springs as well.
“It’s a great sign of how this community used to be,” Herndon said. “A lot of people that have never seen a real stagecoach are given an opportunity to connect with the way of life in rural America , the western way of life, so this way they can see what actually goes with the old west. Everybody’s got a little bit of cowboy in them, they just don’t know it, and sometimes it just takes a little bit of help to get that to come out.”
