A Brief HistoryIn 1857, Congress awarded businessman and transportation entrepreneur John Butterfield a contract to establish an overland mail route between the eastern United States and growing settler populations in the Far West. What became known as the Butterfield Overland Trail began from two eastern termini on the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee. The trail followed a southerly course through Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before heading north through California to its western terminus in San Francisco. Its arcing sweep across the southern rim of the country gave it another name: the Oxbow Route. Its southerly aspect allowed for year-round service.
Starting in 1858, Butterfield stagecoaches left twice a week carrying passengers, freight, and mail. Averaging around 100 miles per day, drivers were able to reach San Francisco in 25 days or less. Butterfield Overland service lasted less than three years before it was disrupted by the Civil War and ultimately replaced by telegraph lines and more direct routes farther north.
The Butterfield Overland Mail tied the American West more closely to the rest of the US. Previously, mail and travel to and from the Pacific Coast relied on twice-monthly service via a circuitous route across the Isthmus of Panama. While the Butterfield Overland lasted only until 1861, the operation and the trail it forged played a vital role in shaping and connecting the young United States in a time of territorial expansion and sectional tension.
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Last updated: June 16, 2023