California's Infamous Stage Robber

Must have been a slow news day

Eastern newspapers (known to romanticize western outlaws) printed many stories that had no basis in fact.
For example, the New York Dailey Times printed a story that had Black Bart robbing trains. Bart never was a train robber.
In 1946 the New York World Telegram reported in a Sunday feature that Black Bart pointed his cane at a passing stage to play a joke on the driver. The driver was so frightened that he threw down the strong box. They said that Bart thought that if stage robbery was this easy why not become a robber. The author of the story obviously had no respect for the facts.

Setting the Table for Black Bart

A story from Mendocino County, California:
A lady said her great grandmother always set an extra place at the table for Black Bart. The story is that all the ranchers up and down the valley kept a place for him at their supper table so that he could join them if he were in the area. If they did this, then Bart would not rob them.

HI HO ...... no one

Unlike all the other bad guys, Black Bart never used a horse in any of his robberies.

Throw down that strong box

In every robbery Bart jumped out in front of the coach, pointed a 12 gauge shotgun at the driver and demanded the strong box. He never fired a shot or harmed anyone. When he was captured it was discovered he never even loaded the gun.

Where is the Reynolds Ferry?

November 3, 1883 stage driver, Reason E. McConnell stopped at the Reynolds Ferry Hotel on the Stanislaus River. He picked up Jimmy Rolleri, headed for Funk Hill, and the last robbery of Black Bart. Today the Reynolds Ferry and the hotel are at the bottom of the New Melones Lake. New Melones Lake is a reservoir behind the New Melones Dam, on the Stanislaus River, between the cities of Angels Camp and Sonora in the central Sierra Nevada foothills of California. Upon the dam's completion, the valley filled with water, covering the old mining town of Melones, the original Melones Dam and old location of the Reynolds Ferry. The New Melones Lake provides irrigation water, hydroelectric power, flood control, wildlife habitat, fishing, camping, boating, and other recreation as part of the Glory Hole Recreation Area.

Black Bart the Movie

In 1948 the movie "BLACK BART" was released by Universal Studios. The 80 minute color movie starred Yvonne De Carlo and Dan Duryea. Duryea played the part of Black Bart (Charles E. Boles). The screen writers, headed by Luci Ward, did not care for historical fact but instead chose to grab the name of Black Bart and write a movie that had absolutely no resemblance to the real Black Bart.

Synopsis
Worthless as history, Black Bart is nonetheless an enjoyable fabrication about the fabled western outlaw. Rescued from a "necktie party," outlaws Charles E. Boles (Dan Duryea) and Lance Hardeen (Jeffrey Lynn) decide that it would be best to part friends and go their separate ways. When next seen, Boles is a prosperous rancher who supplements his income by robbing the Wells Fargo gold shipments under the alias of Black Bart. Upon learning this, Hardeen rides back into Boles' life demanding a piece of the action. Both of the hero-villains are foiled when they succumb to the charms of the bewitching international courtesan Lola Montez (Yvonne DeCarlo). The story is related in flashback-from a jail cell-by the outlaw's erstwhile partner Jersey Brady (Percy Kilbride).

The Wells Fargo Treasure Box

Gold dust, gold bars, gold coins, legal papers, checks, and drafts traveled in the famous green treasure boxes, stored under the stagecoach driver's seat. Loaded with bullion, they could weigh from 100 to 150 lbs. "About as much as one likes to shoulder to and from the stages," wrote John Q. Jackson, Wells Fargo agent, in an 1854 letter to his father. Because they carried the most valuable assets of the West, these sturdy boxes of Ponderosa pine, oak, and iron were more prized by highway bandits than anything else.

But the real security of the treasure boxes came from who was guarding them — the Wells Fargo shotgun messengers. Thieves who were foolhardy enough to try and steal a treasure box would find themselves staring down the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun, loaded with 00 buckshot.

The Concord Coach

Built high and wide to handle the rough, rutted roads of a new country, the design of a classic American vehicle was perfected in Concord, New Hampshire. Carriage builder J. Stephens Abbot and master wheelwright Lewis Downing built the famed stagecoaches of Wells Fargo & Co.

Concord Coaches weighed about 2,500 pounds, and cost $1,100 each, including leather and damask cloth interior.

The curved frame of the body gave it strength, and perhaps a little extra elbow room. Perfectly formed, fitted, and balanced wheels stood up to decades of drenching mountain storms and parching desert heat. The unique feature of these coaches was the suspension. Instead of steel springs, the coach body rested on leather "thoroughbraces," made of strips of thick bullhide. This feature spared the horses from jarring and gave the stagecoach a (sometimes) gentle rocking motion, leading Mark Twain to call it, "An imposing cradle on wheels."

Captain Bartholomew Roberts, Pirate ---- aka The Great Pirate Roberts or Black Bart

Bartholomew Roberts was tall, dark, handsome & very brave, though this personal bravery was used for wicked purposes. He was a very snazzy dresser, adorning himself in a rich waistcoat and breeches, a hat with a red feather and his diamond cross which hung on a heavy gold chain around his neck. During battle, he carried two pairs of pistols at the end of a silk sling across his shoulder. His fellow pirates thought he was a bit of a dandy when it came to his choice of attire, though his valor was never questioned.

Roberts (Black Bart) was killed aboard his ship, the Royal Fortune, on February 5, 1722, in a battle with the warship Swallow.