Marker Erected by: New Mexico Official Scenic Historic Marker
County of Marker: Dona Ana County
Location of Marker: I-10 rest area, Anthony
Marker Text:
BUTTERFIELD TRAIL
Stagecoaches of the Butterfield Overland Mail Co. began carrying passengers and mail from St. Louis to San Francisco, across southern New Mexico, in 1858. The 2,795-mile journey took 21-22 days. In 1861 the service was re-routed through Salt Lake City. Here the trail followed the Rio Grande northward to La Mesilla.
Missouri Historical Markers
"In March of 1857, realizing the need for an overland mail route from the east that serviced the west, congress passed a Post Office Appropriations Bill. While nine bids were being considered for this new contract, James E. Birch began carrying mail and passengers from San Antonio, Texas to San Diego, California. The first trip was in August 1857 and took a route that required passengers to be transported on mules over the Oriflamme Mountains. The route became known as the "Jackass Mail" and lasted only a short period until Birch drowned when his ship sank off Cape Hatteras while enroute from Washington D.C.
"Then, on September 15, 1857, one of the nine bidders, 56 year old John Butterfield of the John Butterfield Company was awarded the mail contract by congress. The Southern Postmaster General required the route that John’s company was to take be similar to the Birch route. This route, which was generally not accepted, was called the Ox Bow Route and had to go through El Paso, Texas and Fort Yuma, California. It added 600 miles over the more northern routes and required extra relay stations and frontier forts to be built. The total length of the new route was 2812 miles and had to be run twice a week. It was also required that the trips be completed within 25 days.
"It took a year for John and his company to secure sites for stage stations, buy equipment, obtain horses and mules, and find men to work for him. Bridges had to be built over rivers and streams, large rocks had to be removed from trails, wells had to be dug, and passes through mountains had to be cleared. Finally, on September 16, 1858, the first trip was launched from Tipton, Missouri. Butterfield’s son drove the first leg along with a reporter from the New York Herald named Waterman L. Ormsby. Their trip is recorded in a book called The Butterfield Overland Mail, ; published 1942 by the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California.
"The cost for one way fare was $200 or $.15 per mile for shorter trips and usually took 22 days as opposed to the contracted 25. The Concord stagecoaches carrying the passengers averaged 5-9 miles per hour and were fairly comfortable by the days standards. Only when the trail was very rough did the passengers have to switch to a more uncomfortable but rugged Celerity stagecoach. There were 139 relay stations and forts, 1800 head of stock, and 250 Concord and Celerity Overland Stage Coaches used by the 800 men that Butterfield employed.
"Butterfields men were rough tough frontiersman as no other men could handle the hardships that Butterfield would put them through. He gave them instructions such as ,"drivers and conductors to be armed but to shoot only when lives of passengers are endangered" and "no shipments of gold or silver to be carried to cut down on attacks by highwaymen." Each driver had a 60 mile route and then a return for a total of 120 miles." ~ Frontier Trails of the Old West