The Bradshaw Trail

Bryce Lovejoy

P-3

1-6-03

Mr. Chew

The Bradshaw Trail

The Bradshaw Trail may not have been one of the most significant things in our history but Mr. Bradshaw and it do play an important roll in the history of California. This book is practically split into two. Half of it is about the man William D. Bradshaw and the other half is about the trail, its history and some of events that occurred on it.

First about the man, William D. Bradshaw. He was born in 1826 in Buncobe County, North Carolina. He was the youngest if five brothers. His parents were Mary Davis Bradshaw and his father Christopher Bradshaw. When he was young he loved geography and he was a pretty good shot with a gun. For a week at a time, at the age of 8, he would leave his home and wander around just living off the land. When he was the age of 17 he and his two brothers Isaac and John left home and headed west to Arizona. He ended up wandering Arizona and New Mexico for years at a time. He eventually moved to California. A few years later he joined the Bear Flag Rebellion. Some of the time believed that he might have not actually been a part of the rebellion, but on September 9th 1911 James Mc Christian found evidence that Bradshaw was in fact a part of the rebellion. The Bear Flag Rebellion was about a group of people that decided to hang the California State flag instead of the Mexican flag. But don’t forget that this was before California became a state in the war with Mexico.

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After that he decided to go back home and visit his family. On the way back, in the middle of the Arizona desert, he was kicked out of the group he was traveling with, along with another man B.W. Owens, because he was a heavy drinker. Bradshaw was able to make it back to California by way of the stars. When he returned to California he moved up north hoping to strike it rich as a minor. That is exactly what he did. He found $9,000 worth of gold. He ran into B.W. Owens the man he was in the desert with. But Owens luck wasn’t as fortunate as Bradshaw’s. So being a nice guy, Bradshaw gave him $2,000 to get him back on his feet. Bradshaw stayed in northern California for a while more. While he was there a bear attacked him. He was all right, but that night he saw a shadow in some brush while he was sitting at the campfire and feared the bear had returned. Being the marksman he was shot the object. Shortly after he found out it was a fellow miner. He and some other miners had to carry the wounded man 100 miles to the nearest doctor. The man nearly died.

After that he moved back down to the Los Angles area where he bought 160 acres for $1.25 an acre. He was speaking with the natives and they told him a quicker route the La Paz Mines. This is important because the natives never really trusted the white man. The author of the book believes that the Indians may have trusted Bradshaw because he had a good personality. He used this road or trail as a guide for the new miners. Meanwhile in June of 1862, he and a man named William Warringer decided to open a ferry business that went across the Colorado River. At this time it was the only ferry business on the Colorado and was very successful. It had a boat big enough to carry a wagon and some animals. Most of the time, Bradshaw was gone prospecting and left the ferry management to his brother Isaac.

In July of 1863 he killed a man, this is the only time reported that Bradshaw killed anyone out side of battle and war. It is not certain why he and the other man got into a fight, but the author believes that it was over something to do with his ferry business. The next year, he and another man, Mr. Banning got into an argument about whose route was quicker to the La Paz mines. After the army tried both ways Bradshaw was victorious, his way was fastest.

Do to the number of new ferryboat businesses on the Colorado, and his own ferry business beginning to fail, William D. Bradshaw allegedly killed himself on December 2nd 1864. It is said he went into a butcher shop and cut his throat ear to ear. Many people did not believe the story. Bradshaw wasn’t that type of man for starters and there was high speculation that a competitor of one of the other ferry businesses killed him. No one was ever convicted or tried for his murder.

Half way through the book after Bradshaw’s death the book changes forms from Bradshaw to the actual trail and to some things that happened on the trail. Bradshaw’s path actually became a stage route in 1678. In 1862 a man by the name of Andrews became the first person to use the trail for a stagecoach. The same year people passing through the trail were killed and scalped by Indians. The Indians were in a skirmish over territory that passed right through the Bradshaw trail.

In 1986 the Government decided to use the Bradshaw Trail as the main source for the Southern and Western California. In 1865 a man by the name of James Grant owned the stagecoach route along Bradshaw Trail. In this same year, bandits robbed a stage along the Bradshaw Trail, killing everyone on the stagecoach. In 1967 the Trail was shortened by 14 miles and given two more watering holes. Bradshaw and his brother were the ones who found the short cut. In 1870 Wells Fargo decided to use the trail as well for their stage route. In 1871, people were killed on a Wells Fargo Stage along the route. In 1873 the author states not much happened. This may be or may no be true. The author just may not have been able to find any written history of that time frame. He used old newspapers and personal letters for his documentation and often had to deduce what was happening from fragments of information.

1875 was a big year for information on the Bradshaw Trail. First, most of the water dried up along the route. Bandits, who got away with $1,500, robbed Wells Fargo. A new stage company came which was called the Arizona, New Mexico State Company. There were also many new ways to travel in Southern California, by railroad, by sea and by this new stage company. By 1877, because of all of the new ways to travel, the Bradshaw Trail became obsolete. . It became an actual county road on June 17th 1974 by the County of Riverside. Its old name was Dos Palms Road and it was changed to the Bradshaw Trail.

As I bring to a close this report, I want to share with you my opinion and feeling of the book. It was a fairly difficult book to read and keep track of the events. The author often skipped around on the dates and people and events. There was no true story line as it was just pieces of information, without any thing tying together, nor consecutive fact in concert. I do believe that the book had a lot of information and it was all the more interesting since the Trail went through areas where I have gone. For example the route went from Los Angeles through San Bernardino and Riverside Counties before heading south into Arizona. I do feel that I did learn a little bit about Southern California history.