beach photos / California Museums
The name Wells Fargo is
forever linked with the image of a six-horse stagecoach
thundering across the American West, loaded with gold. The 150
year history began in 1852 when Henry Wells and
William Fargo founded Wells, Fargo & Co. to serve the West. The
new company offered banking (buying gold, and selling paper bank
drafts) - and express delivery of the gold and other valuables.
Wells Fargo opened began during the gold rush near the port of
San Francisco. Success came quickly as Wells Fargo began opening
offices in cities and mining camps of the West. In the boom and
bust economy of the 1850s, Wells Fargo earned a reputation of
trust by dealing rapidly and responsibly with people’s money. In
the 1860s, it earned fame with its overland stagecoach line.
Wells Fargo transported
items by the fastest means possible: stagecoach, steamship,
railroad, pony rider or telegraph. In 1858, Wells Fargo helped
start the Overland Mail Company - the famed “Butterfield Line” -
to meet the demand for speedy communications across the west. In
1861, Wells Fargo also took over operations of the western leg
of the short-lived Pony Express.
In 1866, Wells Fargo combined all the major western stage lines.
Stagecoaches bearing the name Wells, Fargo & Co. rolled over
3,000 miles of territory, from California to Nebraska, and from
Colorado into the mining regions of Montana and Idaho. Read more
about the Wells Fargo Stagecoach.
After the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869,
Wells Fargo began adopting the railroads for transport of goods
and products. In 1888, after expanding along the new steel
network across the Northeast into New York, Wells Fargo became
the country’s first nationwide express company. It adopted the
motto “Ocean-to-Ocean” to describe its service that connected
over 2,500 communities in 25 states, and “Over-the-Seas” to
highlight its lines linking America’s increasingly global
economy.
Wells Fargo rushed customers’ business from the urban centers of
New York and New Jersey, through the rail hub of Chicago and
farming regions of the Midwest, to ranching and mining centers
in Texas and Arizona, and to lumber mill towns in the Pacific
Northwest. Wells Fargo agents in towns large and small offered
basic financial services like money orders, travelers checks,
and transfer of funds by telegraph. Always, though, wherever
there was mining, from Alaska to Arizona, Wells Fargo guarded
the gold.
In 1905 Wells Fargo & Co’s Bank, San Francisco (as it was called
since 1852), formally separated from Wells Fargo & Co Express.
By 1910 the Company’s network linked 6,000 locations, including
new offices in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions. By
1918 Wells Fargo was part of 10,000 communities across the
country. That year, however, the federal government took over
the nation’s express network as part of its effort in the First
World War. Wells Fargo was left with just one bank in San
Francisco.
In the Wells Fargo Center
on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles, this museum highlights
the Company’s role in Southern California. Exhibits include an
original Concord Coach, gold (including the 100-ounce Challenge
Nugget), a panoramic painting of Los Angeles in 1852, a
historically recreated Agent’s office, and the story of Wells
Fargo & Hollywood.
Wells Fargo Museum, 333 South Grand. Los Angeles, CA 90071
Call: 213-253-7166
Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
