the route in 1849 or 1850 as an alternative to Donner Pass. In 1855 the road was officially surveyed by D.B. Scott when the California Legislature passed An Act to Construct a Wagon Road over the Sierra Nevada range, but a route through El Dorado County approximating the current path of U.S. Route 50 was ultimately chosen.

Charles Marsh was a founding director of the Henness Pass Turnpike Company, and was a civil engineer who built and