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
Of the Pony Express landmarks in this county, this one has the least to do with ponies. Webster's Sugar Loaf House fed and bedded the teams hauling over to the Comstock, served the Express as a remount from April 1860, and from 1861 changed horses for the stage companies and the Overland Mail. Its name came from the granite spire above the road, across from today's Silver Fork store. The house is gone; the rock it was named for is a climbers' crag now.
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