The type of stagecoach that was in used
during the time period this robbery
took place.

In the 1860's the road between Placerville (hangtown) and Genoa was constantly in danger of being attack from highway men and other outlaws. In those days in order to meet the payroll of employees the business men on this side of the Sierra's would ship gold dust and nuggets to California in order to obtain the necessary Gold coin inorder to meet their payroll. Wells Fargo stages were in the business of carrying Gold in both directions. Due to this problem of the citzens of the area being robbered on a regular bases, one shipper decided that he could trick any would be robbers by putting his Gold shipment in a keg of nails, and marking it as regular freight. The only thing is a couple of robbers got wind of what the shipper was planning to do, and waylaid the Stages a little ways out of Genoa. The robbers were not smart enough to figure out that by taking only the keg of nails they would be givig away the fact that they had inside information, as the keg was the only thing they took of the stage. The other side of this story is that the shipper was trying to avoid paying Wells Fargo the higher rate that was charged for Gold shipments. However their plans went even more wrong once they had the Gold in their possesion, as they discovered that the Gold was to heavy to make a quick getaway. So each of the robbers took only $1,000.00 worth of the Gold and buried the rest of the Gold near a pine tree near where the robber took place. The shipment contained $20,000.00 in $20.00 Gold pieces, which means they buried $18,000.00 of the money beneath the pine tree. The idea was that they would return to the area once the news of the robbery and heat was off.

Due to the fact that the robbery took place just a few miles outside of Genoa a posse was form right away and was on the trail of the highwaymen. Despite this no trace of the Gold or men was ever found. The area of the robbery was searched but nothing was discovered. The news of the robbery died down and was almost forgotten when a miner on his death bed in Montana admitted that e and another who had been killed in a bar fight had been the one's that had committed the the theft. He disclosed the general locaton of the buried loot to ease hiscounscience, which led to anther big search of the area around Genoa. Many of he trees around Genoa were dug up, and the old stage road was searched but without any success. Then in 1882 abig avalanche hit the town and stage road destroying some of the buildings and coveraing parts of the staage road. It's not known whether the slide affected the buried Gold or not. In 1916 a balacksmith and his son found a chest with $2,000.00 in Gold coins, however it's thought that this is not part of the stolen loot as it wasn't in the right kid of container and it wasn't the right amont. In 1961 about one hundred. $20 Gold pieces were found in a near by hill side. Of course back in the 1800's a lot of people would bury their money instead of trusting it to banks. So all the stories about found Gold around Genoa is probably just the caches that were buried by the ranchers and bussiness men of the area. The stage coach loot is probably still buried out on the old stage coach road next to some pine trees, or it may be buried under tons of rocks from slides from the mountainous road.

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