Stagecoach robberies plagued travel in Southern Oregon and Northern California in the late 1800s.
It has been estimated that the legendary poet-bandit known as “Black Bart,” who sometimes left rhyming notes behind, had robbed 28 Wells Fargo coaches between 1875 and 1883, mostly in Northern California, but as far north as Roseburg, Ore.
In 1889, the San Francisco Chronicle reported a robbery with an unusual twist near Bonanza, Ore., on the stage route between Lakeview and Linkville (present-day Klamath Falls). The newspaper said two masked men who robbed the stage “unhitched the team and took the harness apart … and then rifled the mail and express box.” Not finding anything of value in the express box, the men opened two registered letters, and found $60, (the equivalent of $1,690 today), in one letter from Strawberry Valley, Calif., and nothing in the other one from Vale, Ore.
The newspaper said, “The robbers declined taking the driver’s watch, when told that the case was dented and could be recognized."
In their haste, the robbers had overlooked four $100 bills (the equivalent of $11,300 today) stuck inside the Oregon letter’s envelope.
Source: "The Bonanza Stage Robbery." The Midge: Cultural News Letter for the Klamath Basin (originally published in San Francisco Chronicle of July 10, 1889, 10 July 2019 [Klamath Falls, Ore.], Klamath County Museum
