ed
with the new portion of the road, the connecting link that binds
them together and now makes possible the ride around the lake shore.
Experience has demonstrated, however, that it is better to make the
circuit as herein outlined.

A brief sketch of the history of the building of the Emigrant Gap
portion of this road cannot fail to be of interest.

It was practically followed by a host of the emigrants who sought
California during the great gold excitement of 1848-9. It was also one
of the earliest routes used between Sacramento and the mines of the
High Sierras. In 1849 it was established from Sacramento to Auburn,
Grass Valley and Nevada City and to-day there is practically little
deviation from the original route. In 1850 the mines on the Forest
Hill Divide were discovered and a branch road from Auburn was built to
that section. At Illinoistown (now Colfax) the road branched, one arm
crossing the North Fork of the American River to Iowa Hill and other
camps on that divide, while the main road continued up the Sierras to
Gold Run, Dutch Flat and other points higher up.

Until the Central Pacific Railway was built in the 'sixties
Illinoistown was the junction for the different Camps in Nevada County
and the Bear River and Iowa Hill Divides. The population of these
regions in those early days was much greater than at the present time,
yet the demands of the modern automobile have so improved the roads
that they are much superior to what the large population of those days
enjoyed.

In 1862 the California legislature authorized the supervisors of
certain counties to call special elections to vote upon the question
as to whether those counties should subscribe towards the building of
the Central Pacific Railway, and to authorize them to issue bonds for
the amounts they decided to expend. San Francisco county subscribed
$1,000,000, Sacramento county $300,000 and Placer county $250,000.

In 1863 the Railroad Company began its work of grading the road bed at
Sacramento, and yet, in 1865 it was only completed to Alta, a distance
of 68 miles. At the same time it was making strenuous efforts to
divert passenger and freight traffic for Virginia City and other
Nevada points from the Placerville route. This had become possible
because of the fact that when the railway line was actually built as
far as Newcastle the engineers realized that before they could build
the rest of their railroad they would need to construct a high