King's Station, also known as Moore's and Hollandsville, was a stagecoach station of the Butterfield Overland Mail 1st Division between 1858 and 1861 in southern California. List of Butterfield Overland Mail Stations, from New York Times, October 14 1858, "Itinerary of the Route"
The adobe building also served other travelers on the Stockton - Los Angeles Road, and other uses, until its 1928 destruction.
Geography King's Station was located in the lower section of San Francisquito Canyon, in the Sierra Pelona Mountains. It was south of Widow Smith's Station near San Francisquito Pass, and was north of Lyons Station in the present-day Newhall neighborhood of Santa Clarita.Waterman L. Ormsby, Lyle H. Wright, Josephine M. Bynum, The Butterfield Overland Mail: Only Through Passenger on the First Westbound Stage. Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, 2007. pp. viii, 167, 173. Its present-day site is along San Francisquito Canyon Road, about north of its intersection with Copper Hill Drive.Google Maps
History The watering place on San Francisquito Creek was first known as "Moore's" in 1854, and was located on the Stockton - Los Angeles Road wagon route, on the section between the San Fernando Valley and the San Joaquin Valley.
Butterfield Overland Mail By 1858, when the New York Herald reporter Waterman L. Ormsby passed through on the Butterfield Overland Mail it was known as King's Station. In 1860 the station was referred to as Hollandsville. Notes of a Trip to Los Angeles No. 1, Daily Alta California, Volume 12, Number 3888, 5 October 1860 — Page 1 THE STORY OF OUR VALLEY BY A.B. PERKINS, 4. Early Transportation, Six White Horses
King's Station was north of Lyons Station (Hart's Station) in Santa Clarita. It was south of Widow Smith's Station (Clayton's Station, Major Gordon's Station) in upper San Francisquito Canyon near San Francisquito Pass.
Raggio Ranch — Hollands About 1880, Charles Raggio, acquired the ranch and adobe station building from the Perea family, and it became known as the Raggio Ranch.
Later in 1894, the adobe was a post office on the Raggio Ranch for the surrounding settlement known as Hollands or Hollandsville.Frickstad, Walter N., A Century of California Post Offices 1848-1954, Philatelic Research Society, Oakland, CA. 1955, pp. 70-84.
St. Francis Dam flood and destruction In March 1928 the massive flood caused by the collapse of the St. Francis Dam washed away the old stagecoach station, along with the Hollands and Raggio Ranch buildings. The dam had been upstream in San Francisquito Canyon.
The only present day indicator of the station's location is the Ruiz family cemetery, that survived by being just above the flood's crest. The station had been located just below the cemetery. Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society: "Raggio Ranch, San Francisquito Canyon" Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society: Photo of St. Francis Dam Floodpath — "on the hillside in the distance (looking west), the Ruiz family cemetery can barely be discerned. Moore's stagecoach stop, ... later known as "Holland's" or "Hollandsville," was located just below the cemetery."
The Raggio Ranch was rebuilt and remained in the family until after the 1940s.Raggio Ranch, San Franciscquito Canyon
See also Butterfield Overland Mail in California Rancho San Francisco
References
External links Santa Clarita Valley History in Pictures: Raggio Ranch and San Francisquito Canyon Los Angeles Times (December 30, 1989): "Owners Treat Cemetery as a Monument to the Past" Deadwrite’s Dailies (March 31, 2011), Tag Archives: "Ruiz Cemetery, In the Wake of the St. Francis Dam"