San Francisco - Wells Fargo History Museum

The Wells Fargo Bank building (main entrance in Montgomery Street), erected in 1959, is not itself of any great interest. But its museum is a rich source of information about the early history of California.

One of the prize exhibits is a particularly fine example of a Concord coach, the name being taken from the town of Concord in New Hampshire where coaches of this type were built.

When the Wells Fargo Express Co. was founded in San Francisco in 1852 by Henry Wells from Vermont and William Fargo from New York, Concord coaches were used to transport passengers and freight, especially gold. There are relics of the Gold Rush and exhibitions recalling the hard life of the "Forty-Niners".

A special display is devoted to Black Bart. Over a period of just eight years, from about 1877 to 1885, he ambushed single-handed 28 coaches. He would frequently leave comic verses at the scene of the crime in which he claimed to be a sort of Robin Hood robbing the rich to give to the poor.

There is a comprehensive library open to anybody who is interested.