CHAPTER
5
Transportation
WHEEL TRACKS AND RAILROAD BEDS The Roads and Trails of Tooele County As early as 1850 lames Little had petitioned the territorial legislature for permission to run a line of stages from Salt Lake City south, with a branch line to Tooele Valley. The approved route of the stage from Tooele passed through the later towns of Stockton, St. John, Clover (where Matthew Orr was the operator), and Center; it then stopped at lohnny Williams's station in Rush Valley, turning west and arriving at the H.J. Faust ranch before climbing up to Lookout Pass. Early interstate commerce included the overland mail service. In 1851 mail was carried by a man on horseback leading pack animals, hence the name "lackass Mail" for the service. Including a route from Salt Lake City to Sacramento, the lackass Mail also ran n o r t h into Idaho and down the H u m b o l d t River. Early mail contractors were Absolom Woodward and George Chorpenning, Ir., who on 5 July 1858 put into service the first stagecoach to carry passengers between Utah and California. The existence of a direct route west to the Carson Valley from Salt Lake City convinced Chorpenning the road would be a natural for a Pacific railroad as well.1 90
