hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

MOUNTAIN PASSES AND ROADS. 541
branching off from the Beckwith pass, one or more
of which were 2,000 feet lower, and consequently
more free from snow. Competition grew up between
the wagon routes where tolls were collected, to the advantage
of the travelling public.
A tri-weekly line of stages was established from
Placerville to Genoa in Carson valley in 1857, via,
Johnson pass; and in 1858 the overland mail from
Salt Lake to Sacramento began to be carried over this
route. The following year came the Washoe migration,
giving the Pioneer stage line enough to do, in
fact too much, and a company was organized, which
spent $50,000 in constructing a new road via Strawberry
valley, having a wide solid bed, easy grades,
but short curves. It was the best equipped stage
road in the United States; kept sprinkled in summer,
and free from snow in the winter. The coaches were of
the best, the horses of the fleetest, and the whole outfit,
including the foppish knight of the whip, a delight
to the eye. The hotels at Placerville were crowded
in those days, while the streets were filled with monster
freight wagons making ready to cross the mountains
with their great loads of merchandise or machinery.
In 1863 the tolls on the new roads amounted
to $300,000, and the freight bills on mills and merchandise
summed up $13,000,000. All this pointed
to a railroad to connect at Placerville with wagon
transportation. The subject was agitated in 1859,
and on the 30th of January, 1860, a meeting was
called, at which resolutions were passed, but nothing
accomplished in forwarding the enterprise.
For the seeming apathy of Placerville there were
the Carson valley via the south end of Lake Tahoe. It took its name from
its explorer, J. A. Johnson, a Norwegian, who carried the mail, on snowshoes,
between Placerville and Carson city in the winter of 1857. Another
way lay between the Carson and Johnson passes, called the Luther pass.
Placerville was 1,755 feet above sea level. Old Carson road, on the highest
summit, was 9,036 feet above the sea, and on two other summits over 7,000
feet. Johnson's trail was 6,824 feet above the sea on the highest summit,
and less than 6,000 in the Lake Tahoe valley. Luther's pass was 7,185 feet
above the sea.