The Stagecoach in Northern California: Rough Rides, Gold Camps & Daring Drivers

by Cheryl Anne Stapp

Overview

New England stagemen followed thousands of bedazzled gold rushers out west in 1849, carving out the first public overland transportation routes in California. Daring drivers like Hank Monk navigated treacherous terrain, while entrepreneurs such as James Birch, Jared Crandall and Louis McLane founded stagecoach companies traveling from Stockton to the Oregon border and over the formidable Sierra Nevada. Stagecoaches hauling gold from isolated mines to big-city safes were easy targets for highwaymen like Black Bart. Road accidents could end in disaster--coaches even tumbled down mountainsides. Journey back with author Cheryl Anne Stapp to an era before the railroad and automobile arrived and discover the wild history of stagecoach travel in California.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625847324
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	07/08/2014
Series:	Transportation
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Cheryl Anne Stapp is the author of the award-winning "Disaster & Triumph: Sacramento Women, Gold Rush Through the Civil War, " and "Sacramento Chronicles: A Golden Past." A graduate of California State University, Northridge, she is a member of the Sacramento and Elk Grove Historical Societies, volunteers as a docent at Sutter's Fort State Historic Park and maintains a website devoted to California history, "California's Olden Golden Days"? at cherylannestapp.com.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Part I Western Staging Begins 11

The Stagecoach: Glamour and Utility 14

Lesser Coaches and Other Conveyances 17

Stage Teams and Traditions 18

Part II Men of Vision 21

The California Stage Company James E. Birch 21

Hall & Crandall, the Pioneer Stage Company and the Placerville Road Jared Crandall 30

Wells Fargo & Company Louis McLane 41

Part III Hazards of the Road 49

A Test of Endurance 49

Accidents 54

The Pitt River Indian Attack 57

Road Rage 59

Part IV Stage Robberies 63

Highwayman Tom Bell 63

Irresistible Temptation 66

Renegade Confederates 68

Highwayman Charles Bowles, aka Black Bart 70

The Ruggles Brothers 75

Twentieth-Century Desperados 77

Part V Drivers and Messengers 81

Stage Driver Charley Parkhurst 83

Stage Driver Hank Monk 83

Unusual Incidents in a Stagecoach 87

Shotgun Messengers 89

Part VI Routes, Towns and Stage Stops 93

Coloma and Mormon Island 95

Stockton 97

Sacramento 100

Auburn 103

The Mountaineer House 105

Yankee Jim's 108

Marysville 111

Amador County 112

Downieville and Goodyears Bar 115

The Henness Pass Wagon Road 117

Shasta, Siskiyou and Trinity Counties 118

Dutch Flat and the Dutch Flat & Donner Lake Wagon Road 123

Epilogue 127

Bibliography 133

Index 137

About the Author 141