Mythbuster

One problem that historians have is that a significant portion of the world's population finds history boring . . . unless there is some crazy tidbit of information that piques the interest of said population. So, in the world of public history, the phrase "truth is stranger than fiction" is a historian's best friend. If you can dig up some crazy fact that seems totally unbelievable, you have scored a definite historical point with the public (i.e. Albert Einstein never wore any socks, or Charles Dickens always slept facing north). People eat up stuff like that!

Another problem among historians, however, is that it can be quite tempting to stretch the truth or fudge facts in order to make them seem more interesting. A lot of legend and lore that people assume to be factual is not. In many instances the truth is more boring than fiction, so sometimes people like to mix fact and fiction when telling a historical story. Such was the case at Camp Floyd, and today, in doing my job of researching the historic Stagecoach Inn, I busted a popular myth. My boss was happy about my research prowess, but he was also sad that I ruined one of Camp Floyd's claims to fame: that Mark Twain stayed at the inn in 1860. It turns out that Mark Twain just blew by Stagecoach Inn. In fact, he doesn't even mention Stagecoach Inn in his writings about his trip to the west! Mark was pretty sad. I asked him why they always thought that Mark Twain stayed there. He said that someone back in the day probably just assumed that he had, so it became "fact." I guess we'll have to change our interpretive panels in the inn.

Speaking of the inn, in my researching today, I found this picture of the inn from about 1905. Before today, the earliest picture we had was from 1925! Hooray! All of this Stagecoach Inn research is going to go on a wayside exhibit sign out in front of the inn. Tomorrow Mom and I get to go up to Salt Lake to the Utah State Archives to check out some other Stagecoach Inn photos that I'm hoping are even older than this one! I seriously love this job.

Wells Fargo started the first stagecoach service across the country. They delivered mail, people, and money to various places from Kansas to California. Today after doing a bunch of reading and research about stagecoaches, Mark gave me the assignment to take all of the money we earned last month to Wells Fargo! It felt like a very appropriate activity to conclude my stagecoach-themed day. I only wish that I had been able to deliver the money in a stagecoach--or at least an armored car, but we don't make enough money to necessitate such security measures. :-)

Two of my favorite shows are "Mythbusters" and "History Detectives," so maybe I'll start a new show called "Historybusters" where I will bust historical myths--although I don't know how I would disprove the legend that Albert Einstein never wore any socks!