Butterfield Overland Mail Stage Route

Imagine sending a note to someone and waiting two months for a reply.  Or, imagine having a business east of the Mississippi River and having to wait two months to receive information on your transactions in California.  In today's age of faxes, email and overnight deliveries, it is often difficult to remember or imagine how challenging life used to be.  In its day, the Butterfield Overland Mail Stage Route was nothing short of miraculous. 

Prior to 1857, there was not an organized system of transportation west of the Mississippi River.  California had become a rich and populous state, yet it was disconnected from the rest of the country.  The Rocky Mountains and a vast frontier lay between California and the East.  So, in 1857 the U.S. Congress let a contract to John Butterfield to provide mail and passenger service from St. Louis, Missouri to San Francisco, California, in 25 days or less.  There would be two runs per week in each direction and there would be no exceptions for bad weather, breakdowns or hostile attacks. 

Butterfield's company American Express teamed up with Wells Fargo and set a southern route to avoid dangerous mountain passes and harsh northern climates.  Stations were established and spaced about 15 to 20 miles apart; water sources had to be secured; new roads were surveyed and old roads were improved; supply bases and repair shops were set up; about 1200 horses and 600 mules were procured and distributed along the route; contracts for hay and fodder were secured; coaches were built; and men were hired for a variety of tasks.

The first Butterfield mail coach left St. Louis on September 15, 1858 and arrived in San Francisco twenty-three days later.  For two years, the Butterfield Trail connected the nation with regular mail delivery and passenger service.  In1861 as the country faced a Civil War, operations ceased.

Today, visitors are invited to discover cities and rural communities - some historically part of the Trail and others that have grown up near the original trail. Explore the variety of museums, forts and attractions that tell the story of the Butterfield Trail. In Texas, the route stretched from present-day Denison to Jacksboro; from Jacksboro the route stretches across the Forts Tral Region - Graham, Fort Belknap, Throckmorton, Fort Griffin, Albany, Fort Phantom Hill, Abilene, Fort Chadbourne, Grape Creek and San Angelo - and then heads west to Monahans and El Paso.

Click here for Informaton on a Butterfield Trail Tour.
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What was it like to be a passenger on a Butterfield Overland Stage Coach?
What is the historic significance of the Trail?

Link to a YouTube video of a Butterfield Overland Mail re-enactment in Arkansas organized by Heritage Trails Partners.  Video production by Multigrain Media.

Sites to Visit Across Texas 

Map of West Texas Trails 1849-1880 (courtesy of Larry Francell, Museum of the Big Bend)

Map of Route--1858-1861
(Historical Atlas of Texas by A. Ray Stephens and William M. Holmes, copyrighted by the University of Oklahoma Press; courtesy of Matt Walter, Museum of the Big Bend)

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Texas Lakes Trail Region
  Water well on Main Street in Whitesboro used by Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach employees to water their horses and refresh travelers.

  In 1860, Colonel W.H. Hunt and Associates built a toll bridge spanning the Trinity River at Bridgeport, mainly for the Butterfield Stagecoach.

This well is located outside of Nocona in Montague County.  It was a watering
hole for the Butterfield Stage.
Marker off of Hwy 75 on Washington Street in Sherman.  A stone mill wheel from an early Grayson County Ox Mill marks the route of the Marcy's California Trail of 1843 and the Butterfield Trail of 1858.  The marker was erected in 1936 by Martha Jefferson Randolph Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Grayson County Historical Society.

Texas Forts Trail Region

 Albany Butterfield Stage

 Fort Chadbourne Butterfield Stop

 Frontier Texas Butterfield Overland Mail Exhibit

Texas Mountain Trail Region

The Pinery Stage Relay Station at Guadalupe Mountains National Park

 Sign showing Stage Relay Station at Hueco Tanks State Historic Site.   Staff members and volunteers of the park now believe the rock ruins labeled as the Butterfield site may not be the actual stage relay station.  However, they are showing visitors ruts in the rock believed to be made, in part, by Butterfield coaches.