The scruffy stray was adopted by Calico’s postmaster, Everett E. The Print references “Jack the Mail Dog” in its 1885 article, and by 1886, other newspaper accounts referred to the mail dog as Dorsey. The earliest story on the mail-carrying dog was found in the Calico Print newspaper from May 10, 1885.
The miner’s tales that came from Calico were often just as colorful as the multihued hills that inspired the town’s name, but Dorsey’s story is supported by numerous accounts in newspapers and published works from the period.
In May 1882, a post office was established at Calico, and the town was officially “on the map.” Mail was delivered regularly to Calico by stagecoach, but getting the mail to the miners in the outlying camps was a slow and laborious task. New mining camps quickly sprouted up all across the nearby hills and canyons, and by 1885, the district was brimming with thousands of miners hoping to strike it rich. The town of Calico sprang up in the mineral-rich hills northeast of Barstow in 1881, and the raucous mining camp became California’s most famous silver bonanza. Dorsey’s story is a fine tale on its own, but as time passed, a new collection of related storylines began to surpass the legend itself. It’s not known how a stray border collie named Dorsey arrived in the Calico Mining District in the early 1880s, but this dedicated mail-carrying canine became one of the region’s best-known and beloved frontier characters.
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