Butterfield Overland Mail Route -- Bud Matthews, TX - Wagon Roads and Trails on Waymarking.com

Bud Matthews Switch is a nice little historical area to stop into during a long monotonous drive in the plains of West Texas.

The Butterfield Overland Mail passenger and mail service stagecoaches passed through here starting in the late 1850s until operations ceased at the beginning of the Civil War. The route of the Texas Central railroad followed much of the old Butterfield trail route.

For more on the Butterfield Overland Mail, see here: (visit link)

A railroad switch was installed here at Bud Matthews Ranch on the Texas Central railroad in 1900 to load cattle from many local ranches. Next to follow the old mail route is the US 180, which survives today as a major arterial connecting towns throughout west Texas.

The cattle rail-shipping point at Bud Matthews Switch operated until 1967. Today, cattle are still loaded here at the historic cattle chute at Bud Matthews, but they are loaded onto trucks, not train cars.

Road of Trail Name: Butterfield Overland Trail State: TX County: Shackelford Historical Significance: The Butterfield Overland Mail was an important transcontinental stagecoach and mail route from St Louis MO/Memphis TN to San Francisco CA that operated from 1858-1861. Years in use: 3 How you discovered it: We saw the marker, and I also learned about the trail because it is the focus of historical tourism in many towns along the route. Book on Wagon Road or Trial: The Handbook of Texas Online Website Explination: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/egb01 Why?: People used the Butterfield Overland Mail to send letters from point to point between Memphis TN or St Louis MO and San Francisco CA. Passengers also traveled along this route, but the Butterfield Overland mail was primarily a mail delivery route. Directions: The trail maker is located on US 180, a few miles west of Albany, at Bud Matthews Switch in Shackelford County TX

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