Riding on the Stagecoach

The following account is from a journalist, special correspondent for the New York Herald, who rode the Butterfield Overland Mail Company's stage in order to supply a graphic vision of the trip to the newspaper's eastern readers. He, Waterman L. Ormsby, was the only passenger on the first westbound route and most of his writings (later published in six newspaper articles) were written enroute. The following is a portion of his narrative as he  rode the stagecoach in 1858 through Temecula and other local environs:

In the valley of San Felipe we saw a number of prosperous Indian ranches, where they raise corn and melons and live much like white folks.  Warner's ranch  is a comfortable house, situated in the valley, in the midst of a beautiful meadow, and with its shingled roof looked more like civilization than anything I had seen for many days. There were hundreds of cattle grazing on the plain, and everything looked as comfortable as every natural advantage could secure.

Our road lay through some delightful oak groves--a most decided improvement on the desert--while the cool, delicious springs of water were most acceptable. The stations (through these valleys of Buena Vista), Hall's Oak Grove, Swango [Aguanga], Laguna [now Lake Elsinore], and Temacula [Temecula], are all at convenient distances, and the accommodations excellent, and the road is lined with prosperous ranches. Through San Diego County the verdure was quite luxuriant, owing to the recent rains.

....narrative from THE BUTTERFIELD OVERLAND MAIL by Waterman L. Ormsby (1834-1908), edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, © 1942 & 1991, paperback, published by The Huntington Library,  179 pages. In print @ $12.95. ISBN 0873280954. Ordering information from Amazon.com.

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