Butterfield Overland Mail (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Butterfield Overland Mail Trail, also known as the Oxbow Route, the Butterfield Overland Stage, or the Butterfield Stage, was a stagecoach route in the United States, operating from 1857 to 1861. It was a conduit for the United States mail from two eastern termini, Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri, meeting Fort Smith, Arkansas, and continuing through Indian Territory, New Mexico, and Arizona, ending in San Francisco, California. The Butterfield Overland Mail Company held the U.S. Mail contract from September 16, 1857 on a six year contract. Service was to actually start on September 15, 1858. On that date stages departed from St. Louis and San Francisco for the first time. The stage from San Francisco arrived in St. Louis 23 days and 4 hours later with the mail and six passengers. The scheduled time between the two points was 25 days.