Historical Marker · No. 706
Webster's (Sugar Loaf House)-Overland Pony Express Route in California
Kyburz, El Dorado County · California
Erected by The California State Park Commission in cooperation with the Highway 50 Association and the Central Overland Pony Express Trail Association, April 3, 1960, 1960
The Pony Express is the reason this is a landmark, and it was the smallest part of the building's working life. Webster's Sugar Loaf House made its money on the Comstock rush, feeding and bedding the teams hauling over to the Nevada silver. The Express used it as a remount from April 1860, and when the Express died in 1861 the house carried on as a change station for the stage companies and the Overland Mail. Of the Pony Express landmarks in this county, it is the one with the least to do with ponies.
What the plaque says
Webster's (Sugar Loaf House) This was the site of Webster's Sugar Loaf House, well-known stopping place during the Comstock rush. Beginning in April 1860, it was used as a remount station of the Central Overland Pony Express. In 1861 it became a horse change station for Pioneer Stage Companys and Overland Mail. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 706 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the Highway 50 Association, and the Central Overland Pony Express Trail Association, April 3, 1960.
Where it stands
38.77007, -120.31257 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Emerald Bay State Park — 18 miA glacial fjord on Tahoe's west shore with the lake's only island and a Scandinavian house at the water.
- Cave Rock / De'ek Wadapush — 27 miOne of the most sacred places of the Wašiw—the Standing Gray Rock, a worn volcano the highway was blasted through and climbers bolted for sport, now closed and quiet again after the Washoe's long fight to protect it
- Glenbrook & Spooner Summit — 30 miLake Tahoe's east shore, where the basin was logged nearly clean to timber the Comstock—the forest that paid for the silver, and the century it has spent growing back