BILL NUMBER: SCR 37	CHAPTERED
	BILL TEXT

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER  93
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE  AUGUST 20, 2010
	APPROVED BY GOVERNOR  AUGUST 20, 2010
	ADOPTED IN SENATE  AUGUST 2, 2010
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  AUGUST 17, 2010
	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 21, 2010

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Wiggins

                        APRIL 21, 2009

   Relative to Robert Louis Stevenson's Historic Trail to Silverado.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SCR 37, Wiggins. Robert Louis Stevenson's Historic Trail to
Silverado.
   This measure would designate a specified portion of State Highway
Route 29 in Napa County as Robert Louis Stevenson's Historic Trail to
Silverado. The measure would also request the Department of
Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing
this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate
sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.



   WHEREAS, In the 1850s, volunteers built the Old Bull Trail from
what is today the City of Calistoga over Mount St. Helena in Napa
County to what is today Middletown in Lake County; and
   WHEREAS, Due to grades exceeding 35 percent along the Old Bull
Trail, which prevented wagon travel, the Legislature, in 1866,
authorized John Lawley to construct a private toll road to replace
most of the Old Bull Trail starting approximately 1.5 miles north of
the City of Calistoga; and
   WHEREAS, The toll road over Mount St. Helena was completed in 1868
with grades of just 12 percent. This toll road is still in use today
as a public road and is known both as the "Old Toll Road" and as
"Lawley Road"; and
   WHEREAS, In 1872, John Lawley, along with William Montgomery and
William Patterson, founded the Monitor Ledge Mine on Mount St. Helena
just off the Old Toll Road and later renamed that mine and the
surrounding community "Silverado"; and
   WHEREAS, During one point in its short three-year life, the mining
town of Silverado housed over 1,000 people. Many more people came
and went during that time in search of fortunes, every one of whom
traveled the toll road and the 1.5 mile remnant of the Old Bull Trail
that connected that toll road to Calistoga and to the rest of the
Napa Valley; and
   WHEREAS, In the summer of 1880, a young author, running low on
cash, and his new bride left their honeymoon suite in the resort town
of Calistoga to become squatters in the mining town of Silverado,
which had been abandoned five years earlier; and
   WHEREAS, One hundred twenty-five years ago, Robert Louis Stevenson'
s The Silverado Squatters, a travelogue detailing the young author's
trip to Napa Valley, was published for the first time; and
   WHEREAS, In The Silverado Squatters, the best-selling author of
Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
introduced the world to the beauty of the Napa Valley and the quality
of its wine, famously describing it as "bottled poetry"; and
   WHEREAS, In a chapter of The Silverado Squatters entitled "Starry
Drive," Robert Louis Stevenson recounted the brilliant night sky
above the 1.5 mile remnant of the Old Bull Trail as he rambled back
to his honeymoon perch one summer evening. Few roads have ever been
described so vividly; and
   WHEREAS, In 1921, a local farm bureau successfully petitioned the
County of Napa to name a series of rough roads and trails running
along the eastern spine of the Napa Valley, known collectively as the
"Old Back Road," the Silverado Trail after the mining town Robert
Louis Stevenson made famous; and
   WHEREAS, Although that collection of roads running along Napa
Valley's eastern spine ended at Tubbs Lane just north of the Old Toll
Road, the County of Napa ended the newly named Silverado Trail 1.5
miles short of the Old Toll Road because the county was making
arrangements to turn that 1.5 mile stretch of road over to the state
to incorporate it into a new modern highway to be built by Lake
County; and
   WHEREAS, As a result of Napa County's decision to incorporate this
stretch of historic road into a modern highway, the history of this
pioneer pathway, Robert Louis Stevenson's "Starry Drive" and the last
leg of the trail to Silverado, has been lost until now; and
   WHEREAS, That stretch of road predates John Lawley's Old Toll
Road, was originally built by California pioneers in the 1850s,
shortly after California's statehood, as part of the Old Bull Trail,
and is now memorialized by a historical marker in Middletown, Lake
County; and
   WHEREAS, That stretch of road also predates the City of Calistoga,
which was formed in 1867, and Lake County, which was carved out of
Napa County in 1861; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the forgotten last leg of the trail to
Silverado, the portion of State Highway Route 29 in Napa County from
post mile 37.9 to post mile 39.5, is recognized for its historical
importance in the development of California and particularly of Napa
and Lake Counties; and be it further
   Resolved, That the portion of State Highway Route 29 from post
mile 37.9 to post mile 39.5 in Napa County is designated as Robert
Louis Stevenson's Historic Trail to Silverado; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested to
determine the cost of appropriate signs consistent with the signing
requirements for the state highway system showing this special
designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources
covering that cost, to erect those signs; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to the Department of Transportation and the author for
appropriate distribution.