Stagecoach drivers dealt with stressful situations regularly. The work was exhausting, and there were potential hazards everywhere. The terrain was

often treacherous, and the weather was unpredictable. During the earliest decades of heavy

westward expansion, the 1850s, 60s, and 70s, Native American war parties were constant threats.

By the 1880s, bandits, who were often called highwaymen or road agents, were the chief

antagonists.

For drivers in Northern California, there had been a rise in hold-ups over the past five

years.

Since July 26, 1875, a man donning a mask and wielding a shotgun had robbed stages across seven

counties. Although he was generally polite, and he took the express boxes and mailbags instead

of the property of passengers, the bandit who called himself Black Bart was causing major headaches

for Wells Fargo and company. Despite their best

efforts, they could not identify or catch the outlaw who his real name was Charlie Bowles.

Charlie was a former prospector, farmer, and soldier who had abandoned his wife and four kids

in Illinois to try to find gold in Montana. In his final letter to his wife, he said he had been working a successful gold claim,

but then two men, who were somehow associated with Wells Fargo, ruined his operation.

After that letter, she never heard from Charlie again.

He had moved west to California and become the most infamous

stage robber in the state, maybe the entire west. He had hijacked 12 stage coaches, and the money

from his robberies funded his fancy lifestyle in San Francisco. There, he pretended to be a rich

mine owner named Charles Bolton. But to continue to afford the finer things in life, he pretended to be a rich mine owner named Charles Bolton.

But to continue to afford the finer things in life, he needed to continue robbing stagecoaches.

In September 1880, Charlie left San Francisco and traveled by train and by foot to unfamiliar territory.

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