William H. Boyd was granted a Utah Territory franchise on December 19, 1861, to provide a road joining Genoa to the Cradlebaugh Toll Road, the trunkline to the mining district of Esmeralda. Boyd's Toll Road remained visible to the northwest and southeast. When the telegraph line from Placerville through Genoa was strung along it in 1863, the road was also called Telegraph Road. Douglas County purchased it from Henry Van Sickle and Lawrence Gilman in 1876 for $2,650.