Wishing Happy Holidays and A Historically Happy New Year to All!

Above is an ad from the Poway Progress newspaper of February 10, 1894, typical of ads for stagecoach schedules that appeared in San Diego city and county newspapers in the stagecoach era.

But for a few decades at least, the term “stage” apparently survived  the transition from the original horsepower to gasoline-fueled horsepower. Here’s an ad below from The San Diego Union of April 28, 1924:

The “stages” depicted in the two ads are automobiles, though they’re still operating out of a “stage depot.”

Eventually the terminology would evolve from “autostage” to “motorcoach” to “bus.” Company names in the field would evolve as well, such as the Pickwick Corporation, which  merged in 1929 with a Minnesota-based company, Northland Transportation Company, which then renamed itself the Greyhound Corporation.

In addition to historic San Diego newspapers, sources for this post were  mnopedia.org and coachbuilt.com, two websites examining Minnesota and bus-building history, respectively.

Ever wonder who Felicita was, as in Felicita Park? Or who put the Warner in Warner Springs? Join me this Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Oasis Rancho Bernardo Lifelong Learning Center as I present my class: “Who Were Those People?,” putting together the human stories behind some of our county’s familiar place-names. Go to the link below to sign up for the class.

https://san-diego.oasiseverywhere.org/product/who-were-those-people/.