group a permit for construction of a toll road from the South Fork to the Valley in November 1874.19
Washburn had run a stage line out of Madera at first, basing the operation out of the Yosemite Hotel there. The stage line ran via the Coulterville Road through the Merced Grove of Giant Sequoias. After a while, the base was shifted to Merced. A series of disputes there led Washburn to consider the construction of a new road through the South Fork area.20 For a while, the Washburn stages used the Chowchilla Mountain Road to reach what is now Wawona.21 After acquiring Clark and Moore's stand, the Washburn group operated it as "Big Tree Station;" this was the immediate predecessor of the Wawona Hotel.22
The Washburn group contracted with John Conway and Edwin Moore for the construction of 15 miles of the new road, from the South Fork to "the Hermitage," a point 4 miles from the Valley. Conway and Moore were to receive $10,000, but the Washburn cartel was to provide supplies and do all the hauling. The work was to be completed by 1 May 1875.23
Construction began on 4 December. The contractors employed Chinese laborers to construct the road, dividing them into two work gangs, based at Alder Creek on the south end and at Yosemite Valley on the north. John Conway, who had built the Four-Mile Trail from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point and other trails to the top of Yosemite and Nevada falls, was overall engineer and contractor. Josephus (Joe) Ridgeway was in charge of the southern work gang, and James Ridgeway directed the northern crew.24
The Mariposa Gazette reported on 9 January 1875 "The new road from the south Fork to Yosemite Valley is being pushed forward with determined zeal by men of indomitable energy possessed of ample means." Unseasonably warm weather allowed construction to proceed through most of the winter. By February, the contractors had 200 men at work on the route. On 20 March, the Gazette reported that 13 miles had been completed from Big Tree Station, and that Yosemite-bound tourists were already traveling as far as the temporary terminus. By 18 April 1875, the group had spent $35,000 on construction. The road was extended to the Hermitage in May, and workers were constructing the section up from the foot of Bridalveil Fall.25
On 3 May 1875, the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors set new rates of tolls for the nearly-completed road:
| Passenger team, per horse | $1.00 |
| Freight, per pound | 1.00 |
| Horse and rider | 1.00 |
| Pack animal | .75 |
| Loose animal | .75 |
| Cattle | .25 |
| Footmen | .2526 |
Soon afterwards, the first stages began transporting passengers over the road between Mariposa and the Valley. The turnpike was still a little short of completion; passengers had to get out of the stages at "Lower Inspiration Point" and walk 300 yards along a rough, stretch of the road. In the meantime, the stagecoach was dismantled, lugged in pieces over the crest, and reassembled for the passengers to board. Most of the riders found this break an interesting novelty.27
The Washburn group expected that the road would be complete by late June, and on the 12th a meeting was held in the Valley at the Cosmopolitan Saloon to
