Before Hwy 50 it was horses and wagons on the Johnson Cut-Off

The trip is hot and dry. A layer of several feet of dust lined the route, flying around as the wheels of the wagons and hooves of the horses pass over. The road is steep and over granite along the 130 miles from the Carson Valley to Placerville. When not the middle of summer, the road is muddy or buried by snow. A horse could cover the terrain in 24-hours.

The road is Johnson's Cut-off and the year is 1852. It was built by John Calhoun "Cock-eye" Johnson as a way to cut off 50 miles and 2,000 feet in elevation from the common route people took over Donner Summit as they emigrated West.

John Calhoun "Cock-eye" Johnson is the subject of the book, A Lovely & Comfortable Heritage Lost, written by his great-granddaughter, Ellen Osborne.

Osborne was at the South Lake Tahoe Library Saturday to give a presentation on her book courtesy of the Friends of the Library and the Lake Tahoe Historical Society. An overflowing crowd gathered to hear her tales of the old El Dorado County and how "Cock-eye" changed transportation over the Sierra.

The settlers heading west were part of the largest peacetime migration in American history. With the discovery of gold in 1849, people headed to a new life, and hopefully, new riches.

Most traveled over Donner Summit, a road that took the road-weary travelers over road that traveled high over the mountains with more than 40 trips across rivers and streams, which was very hard on their horses and any other animals that made the trip.

Johnson was a lawyer in Ohio before he moved to El Dorado County in 1849. He became first farmer in the county with a ranch on what is now the Apple Mountain Golf Course in Camino, Calif. His home was the first one seen by many of the people after they left the plains.

Johnson had the foresight to create an easier route for those heading west. His Johnson Cut-Off came from Carson City and to Lake Valley, now known as Christmas Valley. The population of Placerville knew a better road would bring more travelers, thus more income. The City put up the money for Johnson to build the road which headed up over the summit near what later would become Hawley Grade, which was an improvement to its predecessor. Today one can see power poles heading over the mountain along what was once the heavily traveled cut-off. This route was safer as there were fewer Indian conflicts. Though it was safer, it was far from fancy. Mark Twain once told a tale about stagecoach driver Hank Monk driving Horace Greeley over the route in his book, Roughing It:

"I can tell you a most laughable thing indeed, if you would like to listen to it. Horace Greeley went over this road once. When he was leaving Carson City he told the driver, Hank Monk, that he had an engagement to lecture at Placerville and was very anxious to go through quick. Hank Monk cracked his whip and started off at an awful pace. The coach bounced up and down in such a terrific way that it jolted the buttons all off of Horace's coat, and finally shot his head clean through the roof of the stage, and then he yelled at Hank Monk and begged him to go easier--said he warn't in as much of a hurry as he was awhile ago. But Hank Monk said, 'Keep your seat, Horace, and I'll get you there on time!'--and you bet you he did, too, what was left of him!"

Johnson once road his route to be the first person to deliver mail over the Sierra Nevada from Carson City to Placerville, a trip that took him 24 hours. Later, Snowshoe Thompson carried the mail and supplies over the Johnson Cut-Off for twenty years on his ten-foot skis.

The Johnson Cut-Off became such a popular route that it resembled a Los Angeles freeway with a nose-to-tail line of horses and wagons.

Johnson lived with his family lived on the ranch in Camino until he was killed by Apache Indians in Arizona in 1876.

Osborn told these tales, and more, from her book which she autographed and sold at the event. She said she wrote the book after reading research both her mother and grandmother had started, but never finished.

The books can be found for sale at the Lake Tahoe History Museum.