Butterfield Overland Mail

Butterfield Overland Mail

The Butterfield Overland Mail Trail was a stagecoach route in the United States, operating from 1857 to 1861. It was a conduit for the passengers and U.S. mail from two eastern termini, Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri; the routes from each eastern terminus met at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then continued through Indian Territory, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, ending in San Francisco, California. On March 3, 1857, Congress under James Buchanan authorized the U.S. postmaster general, Aaron Brown, to contract for delivery of the U.S. mail from Saint Louis to San Francisco. Prior to this advent, any U.S. mail bound for western localities was transported by ship across the Gulf of Mexico to Panama, where it was freighted across the narrow isthmus to the Pacific and put back on a ship which then departed for points in California.