George Barnum stopped for coffee in the wee hours of March 7, 1922, in Dunsmuir, Calif., on his way home to Medford, Ore., from San Francisco. At the restaurant, a police officer told Barnum that robbers had stolen a mail pouch up the road at Weed, and the government was offering a $5,000 reward for their capture. Barnum hadn’t passed any southbound cars that morning as he drove north on the Pacific Highway that followed the old Siskiyou Trail.
Wide awake and alert, Barnum continued north on the highway, the main route through Siskiyou County. Although most of the Oregon portion was paved, the California section between Red Bluff and the state line was only graded.
When an oncoming vehicle approached, it came to a sudden stop in Barnum’s headlights, and two men jumped out and ran down a hill. Barnum returned to Dunsmuir and led the police back to the suspicious spot, where they chased footprints downhill, and Barnum drove home to Medford.
Barnum read two days later that the robbers had been captured and that he was in line for the $5,000 reward.
Sources: Livingston, Jill. "Bring on the Pavement." Living Gold Press. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
