We wanted to return
to Indian Country, the Four Corners area of the Colorado Plateau, and to take a
different route from our East Tennessee home, across the country into Arizona,
New Mexico and Utah.
Some how we found a
reference to the Butterfield Trail, the Overland Mail route of the first
transcontinental mail from Memphis Tennessee and Tifton Missouri to San Francisco. That
sounded like an adventure worth pursuing so we began planning. The Butterfield
Trail crosses Arkansas from Tennessee and another branch from Missouri to Fort
Smith Arkansas. It then descends through Oklahoma, crosses the Red River into
Texas and then across north central Texas to El Paso, to Mesila (Los Cruces),
New Mexico and through Apache Pass in Arizona across to Tucson and Yuma, thence over towards San Diego, north to LA
and up the fantastic San Joaquin valley to Silicon Valley and San Francisco.
The 1857 route of the overland mail was chosen to
provide the most level passage free from winter rigors. The mail had to go
through. The US Mail contract required delivery in less than 25 days and the
stage rolled 24 hours a day twice a week
in both directions along some well used routes and broke new ground in others.
The 900 miles across Texas is pure history as the cattle and military trails
and places come into view.
When you read about
the Overland Mail, you learn about John Butterfield who was the winner of the
US Government contract. In 1857, he was perhaps the most capable of the stage
and freight businesses to bid on the contract. Truthfully, I have not seen the
bidders list but know that Butterfield was very knowledgeable of how to manage
stage coach and freight transport. He took about a year to survey the route,
develop stations, secure the men, animals, coaches and logistical support to
hold it all together.
Although he was
seemingly traipsing out into the vast unknown that was in 1857 the breadth of
America, that was only partially true. Butterfield was able to put together
pieces of known and well traveled routes and make them part of what is now
known as the Butterfield Trail. Such a route was well known along the Arkansas
River from Memphis to Fort Smith. Another segment incorporated portions of the
established route from San Antonio to El Paso. At that point the route followed for a while the El Camino
Real, the well worn trade trail from Mexico up the Rio Grande valley. Further
on in parts of Arizona and California, the Overland Mail follows segments of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic
Trail. I am not able to say with certainty when the two were the same and when
they were not.
The Butterfield story
promotes John Butterfield and the easterners desiring to make stronger ties to
the west, to California. When attempting to pin down the route, California was for
us a problem. Unlike other states, Californians do not seem to place the same historical value on Butterfield as other
states, especially Texas. We were never able to get a good handle on the route
and stations in California. That is, until the trip along the trail was over.
Our Overland Mail adventure ended in San
Francisco at the Montgomery Street offices of Wells Fargo and the Wells Fargo
Museum. There it all fell into place. Understanding came quickly.
As an aside, it
turned out that our foray into the city might take place over the Memorial Day
weekend. Banks would likely be closed and the museum also closed. I called
Wells Fargo to learn when it would be open, and verified we needed to go
earlier than planned. I told the man on the phone about our van and asked about
parking the high topped vehicle near the museum. He politely told me they were
right down town, the heart of the financial district, and there was probably no
parking for us. Then he suggested forgetting about driving and making the final
leg into the city on BART. We picked up the train in Dublin, about 30 miles
outside the city and got off about 3 blocks down Montgomery street from the
museum. After visiting the museum we ate a sandwich at a nearby deli, reboarded
the train and returned to our Sprinter. Our visit in San Francisco lasted only
about two hours, but we actually went to the end of the Butterfield Trail,
accomplished the mission, and saw a very informative museum to boot.
While there were
surely powerful political forces in the east promoting mail overland to the
west, there was an extremely powerful western entity pressing at least equally
as hard. That was the San Francisco based Wells Fargo organization. Wells Fargo needed to develop more rapid
communications with the east. When Butterfield developed the California leg of
the route, he partnered with Wells Fargo Express that pretty much had everything
already in place. The presence of Wells
Fargo in California and the influence on America in general is perhaps a
subject worthy of more study.
Wells Fargo at the
time was actually two organizations. There was Wells Fargo Express and there
was Wells Fargo Bank. The express arm operated freight and passenger service in
California. It was the banking arm that needed, actually demanded, more timely
and regular trusted mail service east. The business of business,
transcontinental business, was dependant on transmittal of all kinds of
documents. The only method was the US Mail. The political task was to change
the status quo of lengthy service by ship around South America or across Panama
to a quicker transcontinental route. Thus the freight arm of the company was
utilized to become part of the solution to the banker part’s problem.
In the east,
Butterfield operated a similar organization American Express. I do not know as
much about that organization. It is worthy of note that the two freight/banking
organizations still exist as major American financial businesses and were
instrumental in the development of strong east/west ties way back in1857 when
there was no America as we know it today.
The part I liked best
about riding the route of the Overland Mail was through Texas. I freely admit a
bias. I like, really like, Texas. I never cease to be amazed by the state’s
immensity. The Butter Field trail misses the Texas
cities. The biggest city is probably Abilene or perhaps San Angelo but most of
the way is through north central Texas towns and villages. There were also some
dead and like the Flats at Fort Griffin, even
towns that are gone. It passes through the heart of Texas and of
America. It is the definition of "Fly Over Country".
The route is not
however random, it is very specific. It follows rivers, staying always close to
water. It is directed to points where rivers and creeks can be crossed. This business of crossing seems trivial in an
age of National Highways and bridges. When there were no bridges, the high
banks of a creek or river were formidable obstacles to a horse drawn stage, a
cavalry troop or a cattle drive. They all followed a route across Texas that
allowed rivers to be easily crossed.
The small towns noted were not there. They developed because of the
route. The town of Bridgeport, the Stage Coach Capital of Texas, got on the
trail simply because an enterprising citizen took it upon himself to build a
bridge to allow the mail to cross the river.
Perhaps the best
example of this problem is Horse Head Crossing of the Pecos River. For many
years, it was the only location for crossing the Pecos. Apparently some
travelers marked it with the skulls of dead horses and gave it a name. The
Pecos River is a pitiful river. It has little water and unless flooded is not
very deep. It flows through sandy soil though and has cut a trench with
vertical banks perhaps 15 feet high. At Horse Head Crossing there is a fairly
small area on both sides of the river where the banks are cut back with a
fairly gentle slope to the river bed. It was the only such place for hundreds
of miles. Everybody crossed there…. The Overland Mail, the Army, the massive
cattle drives, the Comanche’s. Every body, patiently followed the river till
they got to the place, the only place, they could cross. On our trip, we
traveled about 10 miles from the highway on the west side of the river over to
the crossing. It was not only there but very obvious why it was used. The
Eastside is no longer accessible since it is on private ranch land and the
trail or road is long gone. Today there
are bridges that cross this river in the still remote and desolate country
through which the Pecos meanders.
The trail across
Texas today is marked in large segments, not as the Butterfield Trail, but at
the Texas Forts Trail. The Army moved west and as it did so established forts.
There is a string of forts all across Texas. Generally, those most westward are
the most recent. Those to the east were abandoned and the troops moved west.
The Forts in Texas are all about settlers and ranchers and Comanche’s.
There are various mentions in the books
about massacres and battles and friction between the westward advancing
Americans and the Comanche residents at numerous points along the trail. The
people who fought and died in these engagements are remembered.
Today, these forts
are assets, even in ruins. They become the property and pride of the town.
There is a competition on development to
see which town can develop the asset and hype it the most. Some provide rides
in golf carts or ATV’s to cover the expanse of the fort in comfort and in the
shade. It is American history at the most basic level, hands on in the actual
place it happened.
Coaches
There is one
oversight that seems near universal. That is, the stage coaches themselves.
What we see in literature and the actual preserved or replica coaches along the
way are the “Concord” coaches that were very numerous in the times after the
Overland Mail era. These are the stages
of movies and television but not the vehicles that carried the Overland Mail
over most of the trip.
The fallacy seems
based in the concept of what was happening. The Overland Mail contract was primarily to carry the mail, not to carry
passengers. There is near universal
agreement that the vehicle primarily
used was the “Celerity Coach” a much more rugged yet lighter vehicle. Being
rugged and light it could take the rigors of the trail and also use less
horsepower. The coach was very
accurately named because celerity means speed, quickness. Both were desirable
traits for hauling mail across the rigorous transcontinental Butterfield Trail.
Alas, Celerity Coaches must all be gone because no one has such a coach
restored and on display.
National Historic
Trail.
Early on, I learned
that money had been appropriated and there was an effort underway by the
National Park Service to study the Butterfield Trail/Overland Mail route as a possible National Historic Trail. This
effort is being carried out from NPS offices in Santa Fe. Believe it or don’t,
but a call to the NPS offices in Washington was returned by a dedicated NPS
Historic Trails person in Santa Fe. We received a fairly long E mail list of
sources that was both very helpful and interesting.
I also spoke with a
representative of the Arkansas historic trails group and purchased Kirby
Sanders’ turn by turn book “Drivers Guide to the Butterfield
Overland Mail Route” that enabled us to closely follow both routes across Arkansas. She also threw in an
unpublished draft of a similar book for
the 900 miles across Texas and New Mexico. Both are excellent references and pretty much
made the trip possible. Also of major benefit was “900 Miles on the Butterfield
Trail” by AB Greene describing the Texas/New Mexico route. There are sections
of the trail that vary somewhat in the two sources but they are mostly over
areas on or around the vast private ranch holdings. AB Greene provides a more flavorable
account for the various places along the way.
It was a great
trip……. America at it’s very best.
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