American Airlines - 100 years - Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Salt Flat, TX USA - Commercial Commemorations on Waymarking.com

In 1858, the Butterfield Overland Mail Line (AKA: Butterfield Overland Stage Line) opened a mail delivery route from St. Louis, MO to San Francisco, CA. One of the stage stops was located just yards from this commemorative marker celebrating the centennial (100 year anniversary) of "transcontinental overland mail" travel through the Guadalupe Pass along which the nearby highway follows through this mountain range. The American Airlines connects the pioneering spirit shown by the Butterfield Overland Mail Line driver who carried the mail by stagecoach through the Guadalupe Pass on their way across the country delivering mail to the pioneering pilots who overcame the adversities of early airplane flight through the same mountain pass as they continued to carry mail across the county. This time instead of stagecoach, it was propeller driven plains and then jets carrying the mail.

The commemorative marker is a bronze plaque mounted in a gray granite monolithic stone which stands a few feet away from a similar looking Texas historical monument (WMVCE) about the Butterfield stage stop that was built in this location. The plaque has a bass relief at the top left corner of a stagecoach crossing the mountains below which the date 1858. On the upper right corner of the plaque is a bass relief a jet airplane flying above the clouds, below which is the date 1958. The block of text under these embellishments is the same dedicatory text that is found on a pyramid shaped marker at the summit of Guadalupe Peak, the highest elevation in Texas. A final text block below the text duplicated from the summit explains the 100 year anniversary of transcontinental mail delivery ... first by Butterfield Overland Mai Line, and then continued by American Airline. The actual copy written on the plaque reads as follows:

"1858 1958

Dedicated to the airmen who, like the stage drivers before them, challenged the elements through this pass with the pioneers spirit and courage which resulted in a vast system of airline transport known as “American Airline”

The above inscription appears on the memorial marker placed at the summit of Guadalupe Peak by American Airlines on the centennial of the transcontinental overland mail – pioneered by the Butterfield stage line passing near this site September 29, 1858 en route to San Francisco"

The Butterfield Overland Mail stage stop located at this commemorative marker only lasted about a year as an active stage stop before the route was moved farther south to run through Ft. Davis. However, the building that was used as the stage stop continued to be used by other pioneers, gold miners, Native Americans, or anyone passing through the area who needed a place to rest for the night. The remnants of the buildings used in 1858 are being restored as of 2014, so there may be more to see in a few years related to the stage stop.

American Airlines (AA) was one of the first national airplane services and they did deliver mail, still do. Founded in 1930 by a group of small aircraft companies who were delivering mail, American Airlines had gone through several major mergers and transformations. In the mid 1930s AA bought the DC-3 planes that could carry passengers at a profit, thus removing mail delivery as a dependency for profitability. In 2011 AA and US Airways merged to create the largest airline company in the world. So, although there is not necessarily a direct lineage from Butterfield Stage Line to American Airlines, the fact that both companies were the leaders in their respective fields of transportation and they both depended on mail delivery to get their businesses started makes it understandable why AA would have wanted to honor the 100th anniversary of transcontinental mail delivery. It was the "bread and butter" source of profit for both eras and for both technologies of transportation.


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Anniversary Year: 100 years Year of Event, Organization or Occurance: 1858 Address: 400 Pine Canyon Drive Salt Flat, TX USA 79847 Website: [Web Link]

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