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Rough Rides, Gold Camps & Daring Drivers
By Cheryl Anne Stapp, The History Press

Book Review by Craig MacDonald

For more than 50 years, the Stagecoach created a colorful chapter in California history.

In her book, “The Stagecoach in Northern California,” Sacramento-based author Cheryl Anne Stapp aptly explains the importance of stagecoaching by breaking its significance down stage-by-stage, beginning as Northern California’s first public transportation.

Using marvelous black and white photos from yesteryear, Historian Stapp takes readers on an enjoyable, entertaining and educational journey.

There was no public transportation in the Gold Rush Country until innovative James Birch saw the need and filled it. The former Providence, R.I. stagewhip, started charging $32 a person to take a wagonload of folks on a 40 mile trip from Sacramento to Coloma and on to Mormon Island. Birch was in such demand, that within 5 years, he helped establish the California Stage Company, which became the largest and richest such enterprise in the United States.

In 1852, William Fargo and Henry Wells formed Wells, Fargo & Co., offering expressing, banking and gold buying along the West Coast. Their firm awarded contracts to the most reliable stagelines, who then lettered “Wells, Fargo & Co.” on their coaches. Read the book review…>