There has been a great deal of misinformation about the Butterfield Trail in Arizona as well as in the other States it traveled through. Unfortunately many, as well as myself, have followed information from widely accepted references that were questionable. The problem is many of us took them as "gospel." One of the primary references was "The Butterfield Overland Mail" by the Conklings. The information on Arizona was highly inaccurate. Many historians still write books today with their book as primary reference.
In about the last five years a few researchers, as well as myself, have gone beyond the "Conklingisms."
First, a few facts:
The Butterfield Trail and the service of the Overland Mail Company (its official designation) only existed in Arizona from September 1858 to March 1861. The trail was 400.74 miles long in Arizona.
No Butterfield stagecoach was ever held up by outlaws in Arizona.
Only once was it delayed, but not stopped, by Indians. This was near Apache Pass Stage Station in February 1861, because of the Bascom affair. No matter what State the coaches traveled through, the instructions to the Butterfield employees was that no valuables could be taken on the Stagecoaches by anyone. No valuables could be stored at the stations. The Overland Mail Company was strictly a mail and passenger line. Outlaws would have no reason to hold it up.
At the beginning, on the Arizona section, there were seventeen stage stations. At the peak there were twenty-five stage stations in October 1860. The total number of stage stations in Arizona during the life of the Overland Mail Company was twenty-six.
There is only one ruins of an identifiable Butterfield Stage Station. It is the protected ruins of the Dragoon Springs Stage Station. All the rest have completely disappeared. The stage stations that are represented in many photos are often not even on the trail and many that are on the old trail are new stations build on or near the ruins of the old Butterfield station. Thirteen of the Butterfield Stage Station sites are on private ground and the other thirteen are on Federal, State, or on Indian Nation property. When Butterfield closed the line in March 1861 some of the stations were burned by the Confederate Army, many in the Western half of Arizona were destroyed by the great Gila River flood of 1861-62, and some were destroyed by Apache Indians because they thought they had won and had driven the Americans from the territory. The deep sand created by the great flood and many others have buried many of the station sites in Western Arizona.
I have seen many places in Arizona, such as restaurants, identified as old Butterfield Stage Stations. None exist. To understand this, we must have an idea what existed along the trail during 1858-61. Almost nothing. The trail in Arizona traversed almost a complete wilderness. The only settlements it went through were at Tucson and the beginnings of a settlement represented by a few mud huts at Arizona City and Colorado City on the banks of the Colorado River.
When the Butterfield Overland Mail Company left in March 1861 there was no other stage line in southern Arizona until the late 1860's.
Some mail was carried by horse or mule during this time between the stage lines. This has led to the confusion by some that there was a pony express in Arizona. There wasn't.
Although after March 1861 it was no longer the Butterfield Trail, it was still called that by some and that is where most of the confusion comes from.
I might note also that there were never any Concord or Troy style stagecoaches used in Arizona by Butterfield. From Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Central California the Celerity stagecoach was used exclusively.
My first book on the trail in Arizona was "Retracing the Butterfield Overland Trail in Arizona" published in 1973. This was nothing more than an atlas much of which based on the Conklings books. In my recently published second book titled "The Butterfield Trail and Overland Mail Company in Arizona, 1858-1861," I have set all contemporary books and references aside. In my research for this new book, I researched, almost exclusively, government published reports from that period, firsthand accounts by newspaper correspondents, and military reports, as well as over forty years of walking the trail in Arizona. I have over ninety maps in the book showing its entire course across Arizona as well as the location of the twenty-six stage stations. I also have over seventy GPS locations which as a body are protected under my copyright. Nothing from the book can be reprinted by any means without my permission.
I have written this book to help preserve the history of trail as well as guide to its physical protection.
In about the last five years a few researchers, as well as myself, have gone beyond the "Conklingisms."
First, a few facts:
The Butterfield Trail and the service of the Overland Mail Company (its official designation) only existed in Arizona from September 1858 to March 1861. The trail was 400.74 miles long in Arizona.
No Butterfield stagecoach was ever held up by outlaws in Arizona.
Only once was it delayed, but not stopped, by Indians. This was near Apache Pass Stage Station in February 1861, because of the Bascom affair. No matter what State the coaches traveled through, the instructions to the Butterfield employees was that no valuables could be taken on the Stagecoaches by anyone. No valuables could be stored at the stations. The Overland Mail Company was strictly a mail and passenger line. Outlaws would have no reason to hold it up.
At the beginning, on the Arizona section, there were seventeen stage stations. At the peak there were twenty-five stage stations in October 1860. The total number of stage stations in Arizona during the life of the Overland Mail Company was twenty-six.
There is only one ruins of an identifiable Butterfield Stage Station. It is the protected ruins of the Dragoon Springs Stage Station. All the rest have completely disappeared. The stage stations that are represented in many photos are often not even on the trail and many that are on the old trail are new stations build on or near the ruins of the old Butterfield station. Thirteen of the Butterfield Stage Station sites are on private ground and the other thirteen are on Federal, State, or on Indian Nation property. When Butterfield closed the line in March 1861 some of the stations were burned by the Confederate Army, many in the Western half of Arizona were destroyed by the great Gila River flood of 1861-62, and some were destroyed by Apache Indians because they thought they had won and had driven the Americans from the territory. The deep sand created by the great flood and many others have buried many of the station sites in Western Arizona.
I have seen many places in Arizona, such as restaurants, identified as old Butterfield Stage Stations. None exist. To understand this, we must have an idea what existed along the trail during 1858-61. Almost nothing. The trail in Arizona traversed almost a complete wilderness. The only settlements it went through were at Tucson and the beginnings of a settlement represented by a few mud huts at Arizona City and Colorado City on the banks of the Colorado River.
When the Butterfield Overland Mail Company left in March 1861 there was no other stage line in southern Arizona until the late 1860's.
Some mail was carried by horse or mule during this time between the stage lines. This has led to the confusion by some that there was a pony express in Arizona. There wasn't.
Although after March 1861 it was no longer the Butterfield Trail, it was still called that by some and that is where most of the confusion comes from.
I might note also that there were never any Concord or Troy style stagecoaches used in Arizona by Butterfield. From Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Central California the Celerity stagecoach was used exclusively.
My first book on the trail in Arizona was "Retracing the Butterfield Overland Trail in Arizona" published in 1973. This was nothing more than an atlas much of which based on the Conklings books. In my recently published second book titled "The Butterfield Trail and Overland Mail Company in Arizona, 1858-1861," I have set all contemporary books and references aside. In my research for this new book, I researched, almost exclusively, government published reports from that period, firsthand accounts by newspaper correspondents, and military reports, as well as over forty years of walking the trail in Arizona. I have over ninety maps in the book showing its entire course across Arizona as well as the location of the twenty-six stage stations. I also have over seventy GPS locations which as a body are protected under my copyright. Nothing from the book can be reprinted by any means without my permission.
I have written this book to help preserve the history of trail as well as guide to its physical protection.
