Road Into Warm Springs Camp |
Mike Snyder Photography |
Road Into Warm Springs Camp |
Mike Snyder Photography |
Downieville Stage-Courtesy of the California State Library The Downieville stage from Marysville to Downieville was owned by Dan T. Cole, Warren Green, and John Sharp. Mr. Cole was also the owner of the Mountain House stage stop at the top of Henness Pass road. The distance from Marysville to Downieville was 65 miles and they were running 24 four horses constantly. |
Downieville Stage in Front of the Sierra City Grocery Weir & Mead owned the route from Downieville to Sierra City which was a distance of 12 miles. |
Pack Mules in Downieville-Courtesy of the California State Library |
Langton With Major Downie At Downie's Cabin Langton had a list of thousands of miners with their locations and he charged one dollar for each letter delivered and newspapers were taken up for fifty cents. Letters were taken down to be mailed for half-price. The letters the messenger received from his patrons in the mountains he paid the postmaster in town twenty-five cents each to mail on to their final destination. The express men had a hard time of it in the winter and many times where compelled to leave their mules and fight their way on foot through the snow. Snow shoes were unknown at the time, and the luckless messenger had to wade through the deep snow as best he could. Later on snow-shoe was introduced, and with these, and his backpack of letters, the express man made it over the snow when it was too deep for mules. A dog express was also in service for a few years. The Langton & Co. Pioneer Express was replaced by the Wells, Fargo & Co. Express in 1866 |
Snow shoes were too slow, for a Mr. Whiting. As a boy he remembered reading adventure stories of explorers using sled dogs and decided they could also be used to deliver the
express mail in deep snows.
During the year 1858 he acquired both Newfoundland and St Bernard dogs and designed a harness for their towing of a sled that he constructed for a cost of seventy-five dollars. His first trial run was a huge success. This was the start of the Whiting & Co. Express. On the sled was a small chest in which were carried letters and express packages. Between himself, the mail, and an occasional passenger his sled could weigh over 600 pounds.
Mr. Whiting drove and managed the dog-express in person, the route being from Buckeye to Meadow valley in neighboring Plumas County, a distance of twenty-two miles. Quincy was the
primary post office for Whiting & Co. Snow-shoes were used by the driver when going up steep grades, or through the deep snow, to lighten the load for dog team. The dogs were driven in tandem teams of two or four.
Stages ran the routes in 1858, and mail was carried in them as long as the roads were open, but as soon as the snow was too deep the dog-express was put into action.
The dog-teams were dispensed with in 1865, when the horse snow-shoe was introduced, enabling the stage to pass over the snow. Whiting & Co. soon after abandoned the business to Wells, Fargo, & Co., who now continued it on the regular stage line.