The earliest routes into the gold regions followed long-established Indian trails. The first route into Angels Camp and the Stanislaus Diggings followed the Antelope Trail, also known as the “Old Stockton Trail,” and “Marshall’s Trail.” The most direct route from Stockton to Angels Camp, Murphys, and the Stanislaus River ferries, it was promoted by Ben Marshall, one of Calaveras County’s earliest sheriffs. By 1854 it had been improved to accommodate wagon traffic. Soon known as the Angels Road, it crossed Salt Spring Valley and went up the newly constructed Carmen Grade and over Antelope Pass to Angels, Murphys, and other higher camps (Fuller, Marvin, and Costello 1996:9-11).
The main route into Murphys in those early years was known as the Hawkeye to Murphys Road. Established in 1854, this road ran from Hawkeye (on present Highway 49) to Murphys, intersecting Dogtown Road, through Torrey’s Ranch and on to French Gulch Road. At that point it forked to French Gulch, and, via Washington Flat, to Vallecito and Murphys (Calaveras County Road Records Book:261-264; Minutes of the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors 1856:143).
The route of the present Murphys Grade Road was not established until 1865, when the Murphys and Altaville Road Company constructed a toll road along this more direct route. It remained a private toll road until declared a free public road by the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors in 1911 (Wood 1955:141).
