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336

Calistoga,CA - Napa County - c1900 - Stage Named "Texas" Photograph :

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Photographic Images Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
Calistoga,CA - Napa County - c1900 - Stage Named Texas Photograph :
The Stage Line of William Spiers, the Calistoga & Clear Lake route, sits idle. Photograph measures 9”x7”, black single matte—minor wear on corners 11 ¾”x9 ¾”, medium contrast, and focus is sharp. Writing in the stage can be read clearly. There is a tear on the lower left of the photo and matte. The tear has been reinforced with tape on the back of the matte. Calistoga is 8 miles northwest of St. Helena. William Spears, sitting on the stage, is holding the reins while the man next to him is writing in his book. Texas, the name of the stage, is loaded with chests. Spiers, or Bill Spears as he was commonly referred to, was a young contemporary of Colonel Clark Foss. The two stage drivers were rivals around the Calistoga area. John Waters Jr. says Spears was one of the most colorful of Calistoga’s residents and that he owned several stage lines. Waters says, “William Spiers arrived in Napa County as a woodcutter before he went to Sonoma County to mine quicksilver. He saved $1,040 and staked himself as a freight hauler to the Oathill Mine near Calistoga land mines in Lake County. By 1888, Spiers, whose favored response virtually any greeting was, “Finest kind,” purchased the stagecoach line from Calistoga to Lake County and beyond. He built stage lines into some of the finest in the region” (Images of America: Calistoga).

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