Kern County California -
Important correspondence archive between two Californian historians from the years 1947-1950, relating to Kern County, California. Leila Opal Stone is attempting to track her grandparents’ trail through Central California at the end of the civil war. Thru that endeavor she communicates with Californian author Marcia Wynn Samelson, the author of DESERT BONANZA. The archives becomes quite interesting as they communicate with first hand interviews with Mr. H. Guy Hughes and his wife, owners of the Granite Station Ranch.
Leila Opal Stone wants to ride the old ox roads and trails that her grandfather and family traveled as they migrated into California. On May 9, 1947 she writes to Mrs. Samuelson, “No, I am not writing a book; I am just very much interested in old roads of historical interest, particularly old roads over which my Great and Grandparents journeyed to and about California now, which begins with the start of their western journey by ox route, to El Monte, then to San Bernardino where my Mother was born in 1858. The year the Mormons pulled out.”
On May 27, 1948 she writes Mrs. Samuelson that her and H.G. Hughes “….did find the old freight-stage road, and got some good pictures along the way, for posterity. I doubt very much of anyone else will ever be interested in that early road of the late fifties and early sixties to hunt it out again, as we did, literally with our noses to the ground at times. It followed a long high ridge until it reached the summit, and that ridge, let me tell you, was about fifty yards wide most of the way, with a deep canyon on either side. Much big oak and knee-high grass for the first few miles, then more oak, chaparral and scrub pine, then cedar mixed with that mess, plus wind-fall, down timber, and young growth plus all of the debris and forest duff which has accumulated over these long ninety some-odd years. Our way was so completely blocked the last half mile, we dismounted, the men tied their horses while we rested, and they (the men) started out bent almost double to get thru the mess. They continued on the old road until they came out at the summit on the old ridge road south from the Ice House.”
In an excerpt from one of the letters from H. Guy Hughes letters to Miss Stone, he writes: This old road on our side of the mountain is really something in engineering. It left Glennville almost due south for a mile, or so and then turned almost due east, and so continued until it reached the summit a little north of Evans Flat and about eight miles south of the present highway (which was the old McFarland toll road). Four miles from Glennville it crossed Cedar Creek and started up the north side of Lumreau Creek, which empties into Cedar, just below this crossing. After about a mile and a half it really took off for the high country. I have ridden over this stretch horseback and couldn’t go straight on this old road comfortably. It was here that James Dunlap, a young man then, and dead these many years, saw a chance to do himself some good with a very fine yoke of oxen that he owned. He (Dunlap) carried the mail pony express from Visalia to the mines in 1858, but for not a very long period. You understand this road across Greenhorn was then and is now only a summertime affair. The snow gets very deep usually.”
“After the first jump up the road follows more or less the crest of a long, bald ridge, where it deviates it is built up with stone. Narrow, but the road bed is still there. Large pine trees grow in the center of it. “Ely” Lynn’s partner, sleeps on a hill top, overlooking our valley….”
In the end Stone would spend three years researching, corresponding with California librarians as well as “Old Timers near Bakersfield” to nail down the route her grandparents blazed across the valley. She writes “I have had some tough rides in my day, but that was the toughest I have ever made. We did find the old freight-stage road and got some good pictures along the way, for posterity...how those huge freights with their heavy loads and their sixteen head of mules or horses ever got around those turns is beyond me!
The archive contains 28 letters (55 pgs.) and 5 transmittal envelopes, of typescript correspondence. There are also the 43 captioned photos (3 ¼ x 4 ¼ inches) which Miss Stone took with here “Eastman 35” along the ride. An AUTOMOBILE ROAD MAP OF KERN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA is included.
The correspondence is in vg condition, the photos have great contrast, the maps is in rought shape.
Over all a fascinating batch of correspondence between two adventurous women, both ardent devotees to California history.