A stage coach station known as Starveout was once located about three miles south of Grenada, Calif, The first mention of “Starveout” is in a book by Helene Bacon Boggs titled “My Playhouse Was A Concord Coach.” Starveout was a “swing station,” with a 10-minute stop versus 30-minute stops at “home stations.” Starveout got its name most likely because the area was not just remote, but also desolate and dry.
Boggs wrote in April 1871 that the Sacramento River mail line had been sold to the Oregon and California Stage Company, which meant that new stops would be established. She said arrangements were underway to change the Oregon and California stage coaches and teams from the Scott Valley and Trinity route to the Sacramento River road, with the expectation of running on that route to Red Bluff.
Other stations were being constructed at Edgewood, Berryvale or Strawberry Valley, Lower Soda Springs, Souther’s, Slate Creek, Sacramento River, Pit River Ferry and three other stations in the Sacramento Valley via Millville, between Pit River and Red Bluff.
Starveout continued to be marked on California maps even as late as 1915.
Source: Broderick, Frieda. “Starveout Stage Station.” The Siskiyou Pioneer 3.7 (1964): 27-29. Print.
