Fort Smith and the Butterfield Overland Mail, 1857–1861

After gold was found at Sutter's Mill, California drew a flood of people west with the promise of gold, silver and free land. Before that there had been little call for fast mail or safe passenger service across the continent. Two scheduled steamships carried the mail each month — a slow route beset by storms, tropical disease and seasickness. As California's population grew, so did the need for an overland mail.

The Butterfield Overland Trail. National Park Service.

The contract

On March 3, 1857, Congress authorized Postmaster General Aaron Brown to award a cross-country mail contract. Nine bids came in that June for the main contract. Brown rejected all of their routes and insisted on his own: starting from both Memphis and St. Louis, serving Little Rock, then running to San Francisco by way of Preston, El Paso and Fort Yuma. He gave the contract — twice-weekly service for $600,000 — to John Butterfield.

Butterfield, an experienced owner of mail and freight lines, had expected to win and had already formed a joint stock company with $2,000,000 in capital. He had an excellent service record, close political connections and the friendship of President James Buchanan. Critics charged that Brown, sympathetic to the secessionists, had chosen the southern route for political reasons. Brown answered that it offered good climate, terrain and roads, and pointed to Butterfield's experience.

Building the line

The Butterfield Overland Mail Company, organized in 1857, moved fast. Survey crews marked the route and chose stops and mail collection points, each needing barns, corrals, food and lodging. Farmers along the way became station masters, and their wives did well selling food and drink.

• Stations: 141 along the 2,795-mile trail from Tipton, Missouri, to San Francisco, growing to 200 as hotels, saloons and eating houses sprang up.
• Animals: 1,200 horses and 600 mules, each branded "O.M." for Overland Mail.
• People: more than 1,000 conductors, drivers, station masters, superintendents, blacksmiths and wranglers, hired and trained.
• Vehicles: more than 250 coaches, mail wagons, freight wagons and water wagons.

The coaches were Concords, prized for their craftsmanship, painted red or green with bright yellow running gear and the O.M.C. insignia on the door. Each weighed 3,000 pounds, could carry 4,000, and held 6 to 9 passengers inside with more on top. Lighter, smaller Concord Celerity spring wagons — "mud wagons" — handled the rough country, commonly between Springfield, Missouri, and Los Angeles.

From St. Louis and Memphis, service ran west under a subcontract: by steamboat to Des Arc, Arkansas, then by stagecoach across central Arkansas to Fort Smith, to meet the coach from Tipton.

On the road

Twelve months after winning the contract, Butterfield was ready. On the morning of September 16, 1858, he personally helped the St. Louis postal authorities carry the mail from the post office to the train depot.

• Fares: $200 westbound, $100 eastbound, and 10 cents a mile for way fares in either direction, with a 40-pound baggage limit.
• Stops: just 10 minutes at each station, enough to swap the mail and tend the horses. The conductor blew a bugle on approach so the station master would have everything ready.
• Timing: Butterfield demanded promptness, telling his men that "every minute of time is valuable."

Contracted mail riders collected mail from the country around each station, picking it up in remote areas from a designated fence or gatepost.

Fort Smith's role

Fort Smith had petitioned Congress for mail service to southern California, and in 1858 Congress had the Memphis and St. Louis routes meet there. Already growing as the Southwest's communication center — with military roads carrying more traffic and small steamers speeding goods, passengers and mail along the Arkansas River — it became a hub of the Overland Mail.

The first westbound Butterfield stage passed through in September 1858, bound for El Paso and California. Concord coaches crossed the Arkansas by flatboat at Van Buren and carried passengers and mail to Fort Smith; mud wagons took over for the trip west. The town celebrated, and a ball was held in Butterfield's honor when the first eastbound coach arrived on October 13, 1858.

The Memphis–Fort Smith link was really several routes and modes of travel. When rivers ran high in 1858–1859, mail and passengers went up the White River to Clarendon and on to Des Arc before transferring to the stage. From the state line to Fayetteville the route followed what is now Highway 62, then took the Boston Mountain Road, said to be "the roughest 10 miles between St. Louis and San Francisco." Coaches left Fort Smith at 3:00 a.m. every Monday and Friday and at 1:00 p.m. every Wednesday and Sunday.

Legacy

Years of staging experience and careful organization made the Overland Mail a success, and it tied the people of the Ozarks to the new western territories. But in 1861, with civil war approaching, the southern route was abandoned in favor of a northern one.

Sources

• National Park Service, Fort Smith National Historic Site: "Fort Smith and the Butterfield Overland Mail" (site bulletin). The bulletin's figures for travel speed and travel times do not agree with one another, so they are not given here. Spelling errors in the bulletin, including in Butterfield's quoted instruction, are corrected.