1518

Stagecoach to Strawberry Valley.

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 525.00 USD
Stagecoach to Strawberry Valley.
Carte photograph of "'Schuyler] Colfax & Party" on "The Stage from Carson, Arriving at Strawberry Valley," Calif., likely carrying mail, money, and gold. Rich chocolate brown tones, showing five men aboard, pulled by two handsome, white-maned horses, posed on wide dirt road. Three men brandishing poles - perhaps eight feet high - stand in front of a peaked building, probably the inn. Imprint on verso, "Album Views of California / Photographed and Published by Lawrence & Houseworth, 317 & 319 Montgomery St., San Francisco." Orange 2C/ revenue stamp, black cancellation "Feb'?] 3, 1866 / (San) Francisco." Printed strip caption affixed to verso by issuer; contemporary manuscript caption on front margins. Then-Speaker of the House Colfax introduced a bill for a daily overland mail route from St. Louis to San Francisco, reaching mining camps where delivery of letters had previously cost $5 an ounce. Two of Colfax's fellow passengers may be identifiable: "In 1865, Colfax, along with author Samuel Bowles and Lt.-Gov. of Illinois William Bross, set out across the western territories from Mississippi to the California coast to record their experiences in the new land. They compiled their observations in a book called Our New West, published in 1869...thus making Colfax a published author the same year he was inaugurated 'as Vice Pres.]. Included in their eyewitness accounts were views of Los Angeles, with its wide panorama of vast citrus groves and orchards, and conversations with Brigham Young..."--wikipedia. In Yuba County - named by John Sutter - Strawberry Valley was a tiny frontier stop on the main road between the mines of Virginia City and Sacramento, the round trip taking about three weeks. "Wayside houses developed to accommodate this traffic, mostly of a large barn and a log cabin, which was as a rule a long room or hall with a kitchen at one end, a long table in the center and bunks along the side. In most cases the drivers carried their own blankets for sanitary reasons. One of these stations was run by a man named Berry, who cut the grass from a meadow, and as an inducement to the patronage of these teamsters gave each one an allotment of this dried grass for his bunk. Hence the name 'Straw Berry's.'"--San Francisco Call, Apr. 9, 1909. Diagonal crease, not immediately apparent from front, passing only through background trees, and with no break in emulsion; very minor tip wear, else very good. A modern "art print" of this image is offered by Granger Historical Picture Archive. Very rare.