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....
New England stagemen followed thousands of bedazzled gold rushers out west in 1849, carving out the first public overland transportation routes in Cal...
They met by chance in Mexican-owned California, each drawn to the pastoral province in different years and for entirely different reasons. For John Sinclair, it was the continuation of a continental adventure. For Mary Eyre, it was a dramatic intervention on the Oregon Trail. They married and settled on a great Sacramento Valley rancho, the predecessors of the tide of Americans who emigrated West in covered wagons in search of a brighter future. Their ranch was just across the American River from Captain John Sutter's famed trading post, located at a geographic crossroads that put the...
They met by chance in Mexican-owned California, each drawn to the pastoral province in different years and for entirely different reasons. For John Si...
