Banta, California

Originally known as the village of San Joaquin Valley in the 1840s, the town was served by the McCloud Stage Company as the last stop for passengers before heading over the Altamont Pass on the road between Stockton and the Bay Area.

[1] The stage stop spawned the Elk Horn Inn, which served thirsty travelers and local farmers.

Expanded by owner Ransom Chamberlain in 1853 to include a two-story hotel, restaurant and bar, the inn was renamed “The White House.” In 1863, Henry Banta bought the inn from Chamberlain and changed the sign on the awning to read “Banta’s White House.” Soon, local residents, travelers and teamsters began calling the settlement “Bantas,” and the town began appearing on maps and stagecoach schedules under that name.

[citation needed] Banta was located on the route of the transcontinental railroad from Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay Area by way of the Altamont Pass and Niles Canyon before the Central Pacific bought the route of the California Pacific which ran north of the Carquinez Strait to Vallejo.

[6] For a brief period, Banta was a stop along the Lincoln Highway, the original cross-country thoroughfare linking the eastern and western United States.