Might you, readers, know the precise definition of “stagecoach”? Not I — until John Copeland, historian and board member of the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum & Parks-Janeway Carriage House, shared the details.

The relatively lightweight (ranging from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds) carriages were used to transport mail, parcels and people from various stations throughout California from 1859 to around 1915, when the motor coach (early car) replaced them.

In 1916, Highway 101 bypassed Los Olivos, the town of Buellton began to grow from its start as a single gas station, and the formerly bustling Los Olivos — home of Mattei’s Tavern — grew stagnant.

Harken back to Elizabethan England, when coaches were utilized in “stages” — short distances from one station to the next. At each station, teams of either four or six fresh horses were attached to the carriage and the previously “used” team was allowed to rest.

In another English tradition, the drivers of our “Old West” stagecoaches sat on the carriage’s right side — a style that continues today for motorists in the United Kingdom, Copeland said.

I met Copeland and Krissy Castillo, executive director of the museum, in early June. We three spoke just a stone’s throw from a refurbished Coast Line Stage Co. coach, whose presence welcomes guests via the museum’s Sagunto Street entrance.

Copeland, a former director and producer, lives and breathes history; I came away from our interview sated with details of the history of the Santa Ynez Valley and stagecoaches in particular.

“This coach reflects the history of the Santa Ynez Valley and Central Coast, which is totally our focus” at the museum, the two emphasized.

The most recent restoration of the coach included a fresh coat of paint, bringing it back to its original color, Copeland said. The museum’s current board of directors and staff were eager to refurbish the carriage, although its first trip south on a trailer nearly ended in disaster.

Because of various issues, including having its paint job severely damaged by sun, “the carriage fell apart on Highway 101 south of the Rincon,” Copeland recalled. “Luckily, a fellow motorist helped our driver, board vice president Steve Berman, pick up the pieces” and driver and carriage safely reached their location for restoration.

Once the carriage had been “re-sanded down to its prime, it survived the weather much better.”

The Coast Line Stage Co. was a subsidiary of the Butterfield Overland Stage that included a route from Ventura to San Luis Obispo, just one of many that traversed the state, Copeland said. Coaches traveled from Sacramento to San Francisco and south, and from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara and north.

The Santa Barbara end of the Coast Line started at the former Arlington Hotel, now home to the theater of the same name, and in Santa Ynez, the College Hotel stood where Santa Ynez Feed & Milling now operates. The hotel burned to the ground in 1931, Copeland added.  

Today’s Red Barn restaurant was the livery stable for horses used on that line.

The Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum also includes the Parks-Janeway Carriage House, across a courtyard from the museum proper, where the largest collection of horse-drawn carriages west of the Mississippi River awaits visitors.

In that Carriage House is a wall-mounted recording designed and compiled by Copeland that features animation narrated by Felix Mattei, who with his wife, Lucy, was a notable figure in the history and prominence of Los Olivos in particular and the valley in general.

In 1886, the couple established the Central Hotel in Los Olivos, later changing its name to Mattei’s Tavern. It was a station on the Overland/Coast Line.

For more information about the museum, including hours and exhibits, visit santaynezmuseum.org/.