The late Boulder historian Forest Crossen was well-known for his writings on Boulder County’s narrow-gauge railroad, but trains didn’t reach every mountain community.

His interest in transportation, however, led to interviews with retired teamsters and stagecoach drivers, preserving a knowledge of the skills needed to handle horse-drawn vehicles.

One of his interviewees was Boulder hardware merchant John Valentine who remembered the big heavy freight wagons, pulled by six-horse (or mule) teams, loaded with supplies for western Boulder County’s gold mines. In the 1890s and early 1900s, many of the wagons headed up Boulder Canyon, then a one-lane dirt road.

“They usually had a dog with them,” Valentine stated. “You’d see the dog before the freight outfit came in sight, so you’d look for a turnout and get in to let them go by.” The uphill driver had the right of way.

Crossen also interviewed mountain park ranger Mart Parsons who recalled that the teamsters driving these freight wagons left Boulder very early in the mornings. “They’d be lined up solid,” he stated, “one right behind the other (on Pearl Street), several blocks long, heading for the hills.”

Jess Chambers, one of Boulder County’s teamsters, had the freight route between Boulder and Jamestown. His 13-mile climb through Left Hand and James canyons took him all day. When he reached his destination, he unloaded his supplies, then filled his empty wagon with gold ore, delivering it to a mill in Boulder the following day.

The old-timers agreed that the real challenge was operating a loaded rig downhill. The driver pressed his foot on a lever that controlled a heavy block of aspen, used as a brake on the large wheels of his wagon. To maintain control on a very steep road, he sometimes had to chain the rear wheels together, a process known as “rough-locking.”

People and mail also were shuttled on four-or-six-passenger stagecoaches between Boulder and the mountain towns that weren’t on the railroad line. When the railroad first was built and only reached as far as the town of Sunset, stagecoaches met the trains, allowing passengers to continue on to Ward.

Both stage and freight drivers held a set of reins for each pair of horses or mules in their teams. In a six-horse team, the first set was for the “lead” pair. Then came the “swing” pair who needed to be guided on a curve or away from projecting rocks. The pair closest to the coach or wagon were the “wheel” pair who did the heavy pulling and braking.

An 1896 article in the Camera informed Boulder readers that everything was being done on the stagecoaches “to make the journey pleasant for the patrons.” The Boulder-Jamestown stage was driven by Walter Wright who not only pleased his patrons but amazed them, as well. No one seemed to know what happened to his right hand, but he was left with a stump below his right elbow.

Wright, already in his 50s by 1900, simply wrapped one or two of the reins around what was left of his arm and was known for maneuvering his six-horse teams better than many of the other drivers. It’s too bad that Wright wasn’t alive in Crossen’s time, as he would have made a good interview.

Silvia Pettem writes about Boulder County history. She can be contacted at silviapettem@gmail.com. She and Carol Taylor alternate the “In Retrospect” history column.