A couple weeks ago, the Olaf Wieghorst  Western Heritage Day's Festival took place in El Cajon, California. It's always great to be able to get out and interact with the public in that type of environment. After 6 years, I'm still amazed at the reaction people have when they see the stagecoach, whether it's the memories it conjures, the curiosity it piques or the awe it inspires. Men and women, young and old — so many people are drawn to it.

And because I love to educate and tell stories, it was a great time.

After spending the weekend dressed in an 1870s costume, complete with waist coat and pocket watch, answering questions and telling stories about stagecoaches and Wells Fargo history in the hot El Cajon Valley sun, I decided to take a day off.

So, here I sit with my road atlas, a well-warn copy of The Butterfield Overland Mail  by Waterman L. Ormsby, Post-it Notes  in three colors, and of course, my laptop with internet at the ready. What could I possibly be doing?

Well, if all goes as planned, I will have the unique opportunity to travel the old Butterfield mail route  from St. Louis to San Francisco. What's the occasion you ask? As many of you may know, this year is the 150th anniversary of the first overland mail trip  via the Butterfield Route .

As part of our celebration of this anniversary — which will include new interactive exhibits in our museums! — I'm hoping to recreate the trip in the same amount of time as the historic journey .

Launching from St. Louis on September 16 and arriving in San Francisco on October 10 (to what I imagine will be a ticker tape parade!), I'll spend 26 days on the road. I plan to blog, video, photograph and interview interesting people and places I see along the way.

As you can imagine, this is no small undertaking: which brings me back to the atlas, book, post it notes, etc.

Right now, I'm in the process of working out the logistics, budget, research and all else that goes into planning a trip of this kind. I can only imagine what planning, anxiety and excitement must have gone into the pioneers' and 49ers' preparations. It's been a lot of work so far, but I think it will be incredibly rewarding in the end.

I can't wait to share this experience with you! So keep your fingers crossed and I'll keep you posted....

Posted by Casey at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Found in Agriculture, Animals, At Work, Barbecue, Baseball, Branding, Coffee, Disco, Dogs, Environment, Experts, First-hand Accounts, Get Involved, Hollywood, Misc, Movies, Museums, Music, Perspective, Remember, San Diego, Stagecoach, Transportation, Travel, Wells Fargo Bank, Westerns

While researching our Team members of Latin America, I came across an August, 1978 issue of the Wells Fargo Banker that had a picture of a young Jerry Brown.

Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown was the Governor of California  from 1975-83. Brown is currently serving as the State's Attorney General . The picture is from a report on Gov. Brown's meeting in Wells Fargo's board room with executives from major corporations. Brown was discussing the impact of Proposition 13  on the State's fiscal health.

Prop. 13 has a 30-year history of controversy. On June 6, 1978, Californians passed the measure with a 65% approval. Prop. 13 slashed property taxes in half overnight and changed the relationship between schools and their communities. While property owners got tax relief, communities had to devise creative new ways to get money for services. Voters in other states took up the "tax revolt" that manifested in California and started cutting taxes across the nation with similar results to communities.

After the proposition passed, Brown urged corporate tax savings be put into programs that would boost the economy. Before his meeting with executives, though, the Governor participated in a program Wells Fargo had at the time, "get-acquainted" coffee meetings in the Penthouse high atop the San Francisco Headquarters.

The article did not detail the conversation between California's Governor and Wells Fargo employees in attendance. But the Archives do bear out the fact that Wells Fargo enjoyed property tax savings of $1.2 million dollars from Prop. 13. The Company donated the money to charity.

Posted by Charles at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Found in At Work, Coffee, Events, Misc, Remember, San Francisco, Wells Fargo Bank

It's sad to say, but sometimes I guess I have an inferiority complex. It's not because I'm short (let's just say my stature is Alice B. Toklas-esque ), but more because of the size of my native country, El Salvador.

Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be Salvadoran. My country is beautiful , with black sand beaches, waterfalls, great weather. And we make some delicious food . But when your nickname is El Pulgarcito de America ("The Little Thumb of America"), that's got to have an effect. At only 8400 square miles – about the size of Massachusetts – El Salvador is the smallest country in America  and one of the smallest in the world.

With the arrival of Hispanic Heritage Month , I've been thinking more about my family's heritage. Thinking about my life back in El Salvador, I asked my mom, "Why do I remember coffee beans when I think of my grandpa?"

My grandparents lived in the country and earned a living by selling fireworks . Fireworks are a very important part of any type of celebration in El Salvador. But on the side, my grandpa sold coffee from trees that grew on his property. Grandpa's parents were coffee growers , and these trees were the remnants of the labor and subsistence of preceding generations. I wish I could travel back in time to experience my great-grandparents' lives, which were so very different from mine.

Though I'm disconnected from the world they lived in, I realized this month that working with Wells Fargo's history lets me make connections with this past – connections which bring a smile to face. During the 1890s, the British built rail lines in El Salvador  to transport coffee across the country. Wells Fargo used these railroads as the infrastructure for its express business in the country. By 1916, Wells Fargo offices had appeared on most of the rail lines in El Salvador. I imagine my great-grandparents beginning their lives as coffee growers right about that time. I wonder: Did Wells Fargo express their coffee at some point?

Now I believe the name Pulgarcito is quite apt for my country. Anyone familiar with the tale of Tom Thumb  understands Pulgarcito. Though tiny, he was smart, prudent, sly, and "all he did prospered." El Salvador was not overlooked by important businesses of the time such as Wells Fargo, and it produced the family I'm happy to be a part of.

El Salvador definitely has something in common with its tiny namesake.

Posted by Ileana at 06:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Found in Agriculture, Coffee, Farmers, Latin America, Misc, Railroads, Wells Fargo Bank

Just had a thought after getting the afternoon Tully's  / Starbucks  / Caribou  (pick yer chain!). Like everything under the sun, referring to coffee by brand name is not new.

One research question I fielded many years ago was asking about a line in a Western novel, about "going to town to get some Arbuckle." The Dictionary of Western Terms in our library enlightened me about the Arbuckle Coffee Co. , which had a good business supplying chuck wagons .

Our Archive Collection now includes a few of Arbuckles' advertising cards, which showed maps and scenes of different Western states. We've used them to illustrate the exhibit in Helena, Mont. You can also find other Arbuckle stuff on eBay  or in antiques stores.

Posted by Charles at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Found in Coffee, Gold, Misc, Museums, Remember, Wells Fargo Bank, Westerns