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A Banning stage is stopped at Drum Barracks, Wilmington, California, in this 1864 photograph. Phineas Banning was probably the
greatest independent stage line operator in California. His name will remain as indelibly in the stage line history of California as
those of James Birch and Frank Stevens who organized the California Stage Company.

The

BOOM DAYS

Author's Note: In writing this treatise
California express companies and stage
companies have been dealt with primari-
ly. However the trans-continental stage
lines and the Pony Express operated certained that all stagecoaches are coach- decades. Localized staging did, however,
overland into California and are there- es, but ·an coaches are not stagecoaches continue for some time as a service to
fore a part of the story. and a wagon is neither. transport passengers from railroad ter-
Also the subjects of "agency" and A stagecoach is one which is designed minals to more remote areas.
"agent" have been discussed, since their to carry passengers in overland travel California was a virgin area for devel-
services have often been confused with over rough and rugged terrain under . opment of staging because of the rapid
the operation of stage lines and the Pony hardship conditions .. It also is designed and explosive growth of its population in
Express. to carry baggage. On the contra·ry, horse- widely separated areas. In 1849 James
Due to the complications of stage line drawn coaches were designed for family Birch pioneered the first stage line into
and Pony Express history, as confused use on city streets. Many a private home the Mother Lode by operating a one-man,
by "agents" and express companies, it built prior to the turn of the century one-wagon line from Sacramento to
has required a study of many years to had stables, coachman's quarters and a Coloma. This was soon increased to two
bring each of these areas into sharp and coach house in the rear. The coach there- wagons and a hired driver, thereby per-
separate focus. It is hoped that the sub- in was obviously not a stagecoach. mjtting a round trip each day.
ject matter will be of use to historians This article is, therefore, concerned In the following year, 1850, Messrs.
and writers who can do so much to cor- only with stage lines, stagecoaches and Hall and Crandall began operating a
rect the misunderstanding now in the wagons and the express companies which stage line from San Francisco to San
public mind. used the services of stage lines. Jose, then the capital of California.
The principal vehicle used on the stage Many other lines were formed: Stockton
SINCE the stagecoach is much a part line was the Concord Coach manufac- to Sacramento; Marysville to Sacramen-
of this story, some discussion of ter- tured in Concord, New Hampshire. But to; . Sacramento to Virginia City, Neva-
minology is important. The coach, the there were other vehicles, differently da, etc. Phineas Banning built probably
stagecoach and the wagon are all in- sprung, and perhaps more rugged, which the largest individual stage line opera-
volved. A "coach" according to Webster were used for rougher going. They were, tion in the State, in southern California.
is "a large closed four-wheeled carriage, namely: the Mud Wagon and the Celerity It was not long until all of the pass-
having doors in the sides and an elevated Wagon. Though called wagons, they were able roads in the Mother Lode were
seat in the front for the driver." The designe_d to carry passengers and bag- traversed by stages running on published
coach, therefore, is for the conveyance gage along with mail and express. But schedules from point to point. As stage
of passengers. since they were not closed, they were not lines multiplied, ruinous competition
The next question is, what is a stage- coaches or stagecoaches. They could have among competing lines between the same
coach? Webster defines "stage" as "a been called "stage wagons." terminals existed. James Birch had grown
place of rest on a traveled road, a sta- The stage line era in California began considerably in stature and was perhaps
tion, a place for a relay of horses." with the year of the gold rush, 1849 and the greatest stage line operator operat-
A wagon is defined as "a kind of four- with exceptions. ended in 1869 with the ing .out of Sacramento, the hub of the
wheeled vehicle; especially one used for completion of the transcontinental rail- wheel.
carrying freight or merchandise." From road. The golden era of staging in Cali- As "all roads lead to Rome," it could
the foregoing definitions it may be as- fornia was over those two intervening almost be said that all stage lines began

22 True West