Revival History

In July 1861, at the Pony Express station in Sacramento, California, a horse arrived without its rider. The adult rider was presumed killed in a Native American attack—a common hazard on the route . An 11-year-old boy named Julius Mortimer Miller, who had been hanging around the station, begged for the chance to take the mail to the next stop in Placerville. The stationkeepers reluctantly agreed, and the boy—who would later be known as "Bronco Charlie" Miller—mounted up and rode into history . He successfully delivered the mail and was appointed to carry the route between Carson City and Placerville until the Pony Express ended that October . But the story of the "youngest Pony Express rider" is more complicated than it seems. Here's the twist historians skip: Miller claimed to have been born in 1858—making him 11 in 1861. But census records suggest he was actually born in December 1850, making him closer to 14 or 15 when he rode. He apparently lied about his ag...

 Hang Town, Placerville, California, c1850's Showing the famous hanging tree to the left of the Empire Building. The story of old Hangtown really begins at Coloma, where James Marshall built a sawmill on the South Fork of the American River for his employer John Sutter. On January 24, 1848, Marshall discovered flecks of gold in the tail race of the mill, and when the news spread, the great Gold Rush began. Up ravines and over hills miners and merchants, soldiers and seamen scrambled throughout the area. By the summer of 48, more than a thousand men were working the ground at the new camp, which soon placed Coloma as the initial rendezvous for the Argonauts. But not all the newcomers were interested in gathering their share of the plentiful wealth by such back-breaking labour. Murders and robberies became frequent in isolated camps along the American River, and before long, several merchants and miners had lost their poke of gold at knifepoint. After one such crime early in 1849, an...