A Friend to Man
Dorsey, the dog that carried the mail, was a famous character in Calico.
One morning, back in 1883, Postmaster Jim Stacy found on his doorstep a big black and white sheperd, hungry and footsore. Without introductions, man and dog adopted each other.
Stacy had an interest in a mine at Bismarck, in Odessa Canyon, three miles away. Stacy’s partner made frequent trips to Calico, and he, too, took a liking to the dog. Little by little, Dorsey adopted a second master and began to divide his time between Calico and the mine.
One day, while his partner was at the mine, Stacy had occasion to send him an urgent message. He looked around for someone to serve as a messenger, and his eye lighted on Dorsey. He tied a note to the dog’s collar, then pointed up the trail toward Bismarck. Dorsey trotted off and came back in short order with a reply. After that, he carried messages regularly from one partner to the other. And it wasn’t long before he became the regular mail carrier from Calico to Bismarck. They called him Dorsey because that was the name of the man who had formerly carried the mail.
For three years, on regular schedule, Dorsey covered the route between the two camps, bearing the mail in little pouches strapped to his back. He refused to allow anyone to touch him en route. At the close of his term as postmaster, Stacy took the dog on a visit to San Francisco, and the city went wild over Dorsey.
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