The History of Woodfords:
Long before Daniel Woodford ever arrived, the place we call Woodfords was home to generations of Native Americans – and some of their descendants are still here today. While the Washoe typically spent summers in the cooler air of Lake Tahoe, some families returned to Woodfords to spend the winter. It made a wonderful spot to camp; water was plentiful. Fishing was good. Deer, elderberries, and pine nuts were abundant.
Exactly when the first non-Indigenous people began arriving is somewhat muddy, though Daniel Woodford – a native of England – almost certainly wasn’t the first. John C. Fremont’s party crossed the Carson Pass region during the winter of 1844, though it’s uncertain whether they actually trekked through present-day Woodfords.
According to an oft-repeated local fable, Sam Brannan left two men and supplies here in a dugout over the winter of 1847 – giving rise to the early appellation ‘Brannan Springs.’1 It’s a colorful though rather unlikely tale. Returning remnants of the Mormon Battalion didn’t pass this spot until the following year, 1848. And Brannan used the Donner route in 1847 (not Carson Pass) as he carried Brigham Young’s message to the faithful in California. As far as we can tell, Brannan himself never actually set foot here. Could a later traveler (possibly a Latter-Day Saint) simply have applied Brannan’s name to the local spring? Sure. But there’s no solid evidence for the notion that any of Brannan’s men ever wintered over here in a dugout.
In August, 1848, when the former Mormon Battalion members reached the foot of the canyon, there was no trading post, no hotel, no Western settlement here at all. But . . . it wouldn’t be long before all that changed.
Gold Rush emigrants almost immediately began following the Battalion’s newly-blazed track, and the meadows at Woodfords made a welcoming place to rest. And rest many of them did, laying by for a day or so to “recruit” their animals – and themselves – in preparation for journey ahead. There was grass here, and there was water, from the West Fork of the Carson River and from a “bold stream” of water that used to pour from the side of the mountain. By the following year (1849), emigrant numbers had swelled so much that wagons would have spread out across the grassy bottomland.
But wait. . . wasn’t it 1849 when Daniel Woodford opened his “Sign of the Elephant” hotel and lent his name to the tiny settlement? That’s another oft-repeated story. But that date’s likely off, and the truth seems a little more complicated.
Woodford was what one long-time resident would later call a “remittance man” – a pejorative term for a British expat living on the generosity of relatives. Woodford’s family circumstances we don’t know; but the 1860 census would indeed indicate that he had been born in England.
Definition of “remittance man”:
“Remittance man” was a scornful term for a British emigrant – typically the black sheep of a family — who received regular payments from his well-to-do relatives to ensure he wouldn’t return home. (Wikipedia).
Woodford had clearly made it to Utah Territory by 1853, as he was elected then as a constable by the provisional Carson Valley government.2 And by 1854, we know he owned a ranch several miles away, near today’s Mottsville. But as you’ll see a bit later in this story, there’s no clear evidence that Woodford relocated to the settlement at Woodfords until substantially later (as we’ll soon see).
The first clear glimpse of the settlement at what would eventually became Woodfords comes from emigrant diaries in July 1852. A traveler named Stephen T. Gage, stopping here for the day on July 26th, saw a “trading post” in operation.3 A second emigrant passing the same spot roughly a week earlier noted that this trader was also collecting tolls from emigrants – a whopping one dollar per wagon to cross the three bridges in the canyon ahead. These bridges, the trader assured the party, had been built by his company earlier that summer, after previous ones had been “burned by Indians.”4
But a ‘trading post’ wasn’t necessarily a permanent affair. Early trading posts serving Gold Rush emigrants were often simply “pole and canvas tents,” where “can be found all kinds of vulgar amusements,” as a fellow traveler once said about Ragtown.5 So the trading establishment near the meadows at present-day Woodfords in 1852 may well have been a purely temporary, seasonal affair. Judging by the absence of further details in these two diaries, there still were no permanent homes here.
So who, exactly, did build those three bridges the trader was charging tolls to cross in the summer of 1852? That’s yet another mystery. What we do know is that only a few months later (in December, 1852), Carson Valley settlers John Reese and Israel Mott formally applied for a permit to “keep three toll bridges” and operate a toll road up the canyon. Justice of the Peace E.L. Barnard, Justice of the Peace granted the pair permission to collect tolls of $1.00 per “waggon” and ten cents a head for “horned cattle,” provided they spend at least $1,000 improving the road up “old Emigrant Waggon Road Canyon” before July 1, 1853.6
Aside from those crude corduroy bridges (which tended to get washed away in successive spring floods), the first permanent structures at present-day seem to have been built in the spring of 1853 by millwright Thomas Knott.7 These consisted of a small cabin and an upright sash sawmill, driven by a water-powered flutter wheel.8 It made good sense to build them here; there was plenty of water to drive his mill, and timber was plentiful. In addition, the vicinity probably seemed ripe for settlement, situated as it was beside the Emigrant Trail and not far from Carson Valley. By July 1853, Knott’s new sawmill was not only up but successfully churning out lumber.
Knott sold his interest in his house and sawmill to John L. Cary a few months later, and moved on. But by now, the embryonic settlement was apparently attracting more attention. Merchant W.P. Merrill arrived and set up what was likely a temporary trading post in 1853 and (according to family lore) rented space in a dugout to store his goods over the winter, then opened a store in the Knott/Cary/Wade house the following spring.9
By 1854, a small cluster of buildings had already sprung up near the mill. A woman traveler that August describes not just the sawmill but also a butcher shop and several houses at the mouth of the canyon.10 Another traveler in September described the place as a “settlement.”11
A newspaper list of trading posts, lodging, and other amenities for travelers in mid-1854 shows that another mile up the canyon, “Lant & Co.” was operating a separate trading post at the First Crossing toll bridge, an establishment offering provisions, groceries, and “meals at all hours” for travelers.12
As that same 1854 newspaper shows, both Wade and Woodford had established ranches – Wade near present-day Fredericksburg, and Woodford farther north in the valley, near the Motts. Correspondence by Clarissa Wade indicates that her son was operating a trading post in Hope Valley that same year.13
But here, the story begins to get somewhat messy. According to one Carson Valley old-timer, Dan Woodford and James Wade (Clarissa’s son) ran the “first store” at the south end of the valley together for several years, half a mile west of today’s Bruns ranch. And according to that same source, “Mr. Woodford also took up and owned the present F. Bruns farm.14 That apparently occurred sometime after 1854, as Woodfords was much farther north at first. But if Woodford later moved closer, the Fredericksburg location was a logical spot for a store; his later ranch at Fredericksburg (now owned by Bruns) would have straddled the Emigrant Trail. But even so, Daniel Woodford didn’t seem to be living at what would become “Woodfords” quite yet.
By 1856, Lucky Bill Thorington had acquired Israel Mott’s interest in the toll road and was running a “station” at the foot of the canyon. One charming story tells of Thorington’s kindness there to a discouraged, “poverty-stricken” miner, headed east after “failures in California.” After spending the night at Thorington’s station, the unfortunate elderly man awoke to find his horse dead and his two traveling companions hitting the road without him. “Cheer up, old man,” Thorington said – sending the white-haired gent on his way a few days later with a “fine roan horse,” a two-wheeled vehicle, and a cargo of provisions.15
Mott may no longer have owned an interest in the toll road, but he did apparently still own property, and perhaps a trading post, at the foot of the canyon. One passing emigrant in September 1856 identifies “Mr. Mott” as the owner of the sawmill and a house, and describes purchasing “a good treat of melons and other nick-nacks” from Mott.16
But by 1858, Daniel Woodford had evidently moved to town that would take his name; he became the first postmaster at “Cary’s Mills” when a post office opened that year.17 And while it’s only a guess, he probably opened his “Sign of the Elephant” hotel there about the same time.
Clarissa and William Wade, too, left their Fredericksburg-area ranch in 1858 and moved to Woodfords, at some point acquiring the house that Cary had bought from Knott – which now bears their name.18 By the following year, Woodfords as clearly growing; one emigrant passing by on September 2, 1859 would report seeing not only the sawmill but a hotel (likely Woodford’s “Sign of the Elephant”) and a blacksmith shop.19 Three days later, a different traveler noted: “Passed Carey’s Mills today. [It is a] stage station, and a fine frame houseand barn are there.”20
Tragedy struck in February, 1860, when a fire broke out in the kitchen of Woodford’s hotel and apparently burned it to the ground. Guests “barely escaped with their lives,” and lost an estimated $5,000 of possessions, including cash and a silver banjo. But it was quickly rebuilt.21 And by 1863, the small settlement included two hotels, stables, and houses.22
Today, springs still seep out of the mountainside behind the Woodfords store, though the waterfall above has long disappeared. Thomas Knott’s 1853 cabin is still there, too, now part of the old Wade House. The paved service road in front of modern Woodfords Station still follows the path of the old Emigrant trail, and you can still spot the meadows below where emigrants once camped and fought the mosquitoes. Listen carefully and over the noise of passing traffic, you might be able to hear the rush of the river, just like early travelers once did.
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Footnotes:
1. We’re not quite sure where the ‘Brannan Springs’ legend arose, but it’s been frequently repeated. See, for example, Marshall Fey, Emigrant Trails: The Long Road to California (Western Trails Research Assoc. 2008), at p. 154.
2. Daniel Woodford was elected Constable under the provisional Carson Valley government. First Records of Carson Valley, p. 20 (March 21, 1853). The description of Woodford as a “remittance man” comes from notes by Grant Merrill about the early history of Woodfords. Merrill believed that Woodfords arrived in 1849, taking over another squatter’s home [though this could potentially be the ranch near Fredericksburg]; Woodfords, he said, married a Mrs. Hollis, another emigrant who came through and left her husband to live with Dan Woodford. Their child was Kit Carson Woodford, born about 1854. (Early History of Woodfords, typescript, copy in possession of the author.)
3. Gage mentions finding a trading post here, a spot his next entry identifiess as one mile from First Crossing. Diary of Stephen T. Gage, manuscript collection, California State Library (entry of July 26, 1852), reprinted in Archaeological and Historical Investigation of the Mormon-Emigrant Trail, Vol. II: History (Appendix A)(U.S. Forest Service, 1989)(hereafter cited as “History Appendix”), at p. 371.
4. Regarding the trader collecting toll, see Diary of Richard Keen, “Account of a Journey Overland to California in 1852,” manuscript collection, California State Library (entry of July 18, 1852), reprinted in History Appendix, p. 363.
5. Quote regarding the “pole and canvas tents” at Ragtown: Dr. John H. Wayman, A Doctor on the California Trail (Edgeley W. Todd, ed.)(Old West Publishing Co. 1971)(entry of August 5, 1852), reprinted in History Appendix, p. 372. As for the identity of the trader, we can only guess, but it’s possible this was someone hired by John Reese or the Mott or Cary families.
6. First Records of Carson Valley, pp. 14-16 (December 1, 1852)(toll road permit issued to John Reese and Israel Mott). The toll road franchise allowed them to charge tolls of $1 per “waggon,” ten cents each for “horned cattle,” 2-1/2 cents for sheep, and 25 cents for horses or mules (“packed or light”). Those were steep tolls for the day, and Richard Keen’s diary (mentioned in the note above) reflected considerable agitation among the emigrants about being asked to pay this much to pass, though his party eventually relented.
Thomas Knott would later write that he, his son Elzy, and Lucky Bill Thorington were involved with Mott and Reese in improving the wagon road up the canyon. Thomas Knott, Reminiscences: Early History of Nevada in the 1850s, (Herbert Hamlin, ed.)(The Mountain Democrat, 1947), p. 6.
Hiram Mott testified in subsequent road litigation that he had worked on the road “since 1852, up to 1856.” Deposition, Amador Archives #6674.978.12 (Williamson v. LaGrave) (Deposition, November 25, 1863).
Testimony from James H. Gibbs indicated that he had been left in charge of the road and bridges by W.B. Thorington (“Lucky Bill”) and Reese from September 1853 to August 1854, and charged with collecting toll. (Deposition, November 27, 1863, Amador Count Archives #6674.978). Further testimony by W.B. Wade indicated that Lucky Bill Thorington and Reese had been collecting toll about 1852-54, but stopped in the spring of 1855, and the road became a free road for the next 5-6 years. (Deposition, November 27, 1863, Amador County Archives #6674.978).
This (temporary) end for the toll road roughly matches a statement in a letter by Clarissa Wade in November, 1854, saying the “citizens have held a meeting and declared that toll-bridge is void and of no effect from this time out” and they wished the public to know that the “big kanyon is free from toll hereafter.” (Letter by Clarissa Wade dated November 12, 1854, reproduced in article by Gordon L. Nelson, Western Express (philatelic magazine), June 2019.
7. Thomas Knott, Reminiscenses, above. Knott indicated that he had a crew of three men working with him building the mill and house. One was almost certainly his son, Elzy Knott; John A. “Snowshoe” Thompson was likely the second; and it’s possible (though by no means certain) that John L. Cary, his former business partner, was the third. Wood for these buildings came from a “fine flat of pine timber” on the south side of the river. (Reminiscences, p. 9 and ftn. 14).
8. For more about information about Knott and his mill, see https://www.clairitage.com/2026/01/01/a-long-lost-woodfords-mill/
9. According to the Oral History by Stu Merrill, his ancestor “started a new trading post” on the site in 1853, then “rented a dugout from Woodford” to store his supplies over the winter. He came back the following spring and opened the Merrill Trading Post, in the house “built by Cary” (i.e., Knott), in what is now the Wade House (and the oral history says was owned at the time by Wade, though that chronology may be slightly off). Oral History of Stuart Merrill (compiled by Carole Morgan, Alpine County Historial Society, 2010) at p. 9.
10. For the description of Woodfords as including a butcher shop and several houses as well as a “small saw mill . . . now in operation at the mouth of the canyon,”see Mary Burrell, “Council Bluffs to California, 1854,” in Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails 1840-1890 (Kenneth L. Holmes, ed.)(Arthur H. Clark Co. 1986) (entry of August 19, 1854), reprinted in History Appendix, p. 437.
11. Traveler Patrick Murphy mentions a saw mill “on the river, which is run by water power” and a “settlement” at the mouth of the canyon. Patrick Henry Murphy, “Across the Plains,” manuscript collection, California State Library (entry of September 30, 1854), reprinted in History Appendix, p. 443.
12. The Mountain Democrat, August 12, 1854.
13. Clarissa Wade letter, November 12, 1854, reproduced in article by Gordon L. Nelson, Western Express (philatelic magazine), June 2019.
14. Owen E. Jones, “Reminiscences of Bygone Days From the Pen of Owen E. Jones,” Record-Courier, September 4, 1925. According to Jones, “The first store conducted in the south end of the valley was owned by Dan Woodford and James Wade. It was located about a half-mile west of the present F. Bruns farm, on the old emigrant road. They brought out the stock of merchandise from the east by ox team, and they conducted this store for many years and did a good business. Mr. Woodford also took up and owned the present F. Bruns farm.”
15. History of Nevada (Thompson & West 1881), at p. 50.
16. Journal of J. Robert Brown, Journal of a Trip Across the Plains of the U.S. from Missouri to California in the Year 1856 (Yale Univ. Microfilm, transcription of 1860), (entry of September 25, 1856), reprinted in History Appendix, p. 451.
17. Western Express (philatelic magazine), June 2019. Daniel Woodford’s first name was (apparently mistakenly) listed on the postal record as “Samuel.”
18. Clarissa Wade’s obituary indicates she crossel the plains with her husband, William B. Wade, and settled at Fredericksburg in 1853, then moved to Woodfords in 1858. Genoa Weekly Courier, January 10, 1890. In 1862, after the Homestead Act was enacted, Clarissa filed on 160 acres of land (with a house), which she had purchased from John Cary of Cary’s Mills (according to the “Alpine Heritage” history pamphlet, published by Alpine County Historical Society in 1964).
19. John W. Powell, “A brief account of a journey across the Planes [sic] from Platts Mouth on the Missour River to Placerville, El Dorado County, California,” manuscript collection, California Historical Society Library (entry of September 2, 1859), reproduced in History Appendix, p. 461.
20. Henry Martyn Pomeroy, “Daily Journal” (May 20, 1857 – October 17, 1860), manuscript collection, California State Library (entry of September 5, 1859), reprinted in History Appendix, p. 463.
21. Regarding the fire at Woodfords Hotel: FaSacramento Daily Alta, March 2, 1860; see also R.N. Allen, Tennessee Letters, p. 122 (Letter of March 10, 1860).
22. James Pressley Yaeger, “Diary of a Journey Across the Plains – 1863,” manuscript collection, Nevada Historical Society (NC 79, Box 1, File 2, at p. 211)(incorrectly identifying the place he was describing as “Markleeville).
That same year (1863), according to legal documents, Daniel Woodford was the owner of a 500-acre “Woodford’s Ranch” at the mouth of Carson Canon and on the road to Hope Valley, with W.B. Wade owning a neighboring ranch to the south and east. Woodfords sold this ranch to Ira G. Harlin on May 13, 1863 but evidently didn’t receive payment as expected; he sued Harlin to set aside the sale but later dismissed the suit in 1866, attesting that he had received “full and entire satisfaction.” (Woodford v. Harlin et al., Alpine County District Court Case No. 57, Complaint filed October 16, 1865; Motion to Dismiss dated September 22, 1866; an Order to Dismiss filed September 23, 1866).
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