The Butterfield Stage Route

Today I walked 5.32 miles on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, just East of Ft. Yuma (although I will divert northward soon to Phoenix).  Here's a Google "street view" of where I am right now.  CLICK HERE  (Following my route Northeast, I am 150 miles away from Phoenix, about a one-month walk at my walking rate.)

The Butterfield Overland stagecoach line started in the East at Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri and carried passengers and mail all the way to San Francisco.  It ran from 1857-1861.  "The routes from each eastern terminus met at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then continued through Indian Territory, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Baja California, and California ending in San Francisco.[2" (Wikipedia) 

The route from East to West from St. Louis went through Tipton, Ft. Smith, Colbert's Ferry, Ft. Chadbourne, Franklin, Tucson, Ft. Yuma, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. (Wikipedia).  But, "the stage route between Fort Smith, Arkansas, and San Francisco, California, passed through only two real towns: Tucson and El Paso. One stretch of route had no settlements for 900 miles; another had no water for 75." (The Butterfield Overland Mail Stage Line)  One of the stage stops along the way was Temecula (now a city North of San Diego).

It must have been a tough way to travel. Waterman Ormsby, a special correspondent for the New York Herald, after having made the first westbound trip on the Butterfield Stage said, "Had I not just come out over the route, I would be perfectly willing to go back, but I now know what Hell is like.  I've just had 24 days of it." Legends of America

Jay W. Sharp expands on Ormsby's "Hell" statement, with his history of what passengers of the Butterfield stage line could expect on their journey, such as crowded quarters, a 2,800 mile relentless, bone-jarring ride, endless desert heat in the Summer or freezing temperatures in Winter, brief stops at way stations with poor food and no rest, Indian attacks, robbers, overturns, illness and all this for what would cost the equivalent in today's money of $3,000 for a ticket.

Raphael Pumpelly, who traveled on Butterfield’s line west to Tucson, said, "The coach was fitted with three seats, and these were occupied by nine passengers. As the occupants of the front and middle seats faced each other, it was necessary for these six people to interlock their knees; and there being room inside for only ten of the twelve legs, each side of the coach was graced by a foot, now dangling near the wheel, now trying in vain to find a place of support. An unusually heavy mail in the boot, by weighing down the rear, kept those of us who were on the front seat constantly bent forward...
"The fatigue of uninterrupted traveling by day and night in a crowded coach, and in the most uncomfortable positions, was beginning to tell seriously upon all the passengers, and was producing in me a condition bordering on insanity..." (Sharp)

Todd Underwood writes a good history of the Butterfield Overland Stage route.

Another well-written article was written by Mary A. Helmich, who wrote "The Butterfield Overland Mail," for Interpretation and Education Division; California State Parks, 2008.