Raymond: The Railhead That Launched a Thousand Stages
Near Oakhurst, California
When the railroad came to the San Joaquin Valley, it changed the way the world reached Yosemite. In eighteen eighty six, a spur line reached the town of Raymond, southwest of present-day Oakhurst. Raymond became the jumping-off point for Yosemite, the last stop where passengers could step off a train before boarding a horse-drawn stage for the long climb into the mountains.
At the height of the Raymond era, many daily stagecoaches left for Wawona, the overnight hotel stop on the route to Yosemite Valley. The journey from Raymond to Wawona covered roughly forty miles and took most of a day, assuming no breakdowns and no washed-out roads. Theodore Roosevelt is said to have traveled through Raymond on his way to camp with John Muir in nineteen oh three, and the town briefly glittered with the tourist trade.
The automobile ended Raymond's reign. When early motorists found they could drive from the valley floor directly into the mountains, the need for a railroad-stagecoach connection dissolved. Raymond's hotels and livery stables fell empty.
The town shrank. Today Raymond is a small community, its moment of Yosemite glory preserved in photographs and local memory. Oakhurst, farther up the road and better positioned for automobile traffic on Highway Forty One, took over as the gateway town.
