900 Miles on the Butterfield Trail

Part V. Crossroads

PART FIVE Crossroads An Inspector's Report IN 1858 Goddard Bailey, Special Agent for Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown, inspected the transcontinental mail systems, including the route across the Isthmus of Panama. After that, he was on the first Butterfield stage going from San Francisco to St. Louis, and his report on the line is of interest.' "The establishment of a regular and permanent line of communication , overland, between the Atlantic States and California being a matter of general interest, some desire may naturally be felt to know how far the enterprise recently inaugurated under the auspices of your department has succeeded," Bailey wrote. "I am induced, therefore, to reproduce somewhat in detail, the notes I took while accompanying the first mail sent from the Pacific under the contract with the Overland Mail Company." Pointing out that the stage, in San Francisco, started from the Plaza shortly after midnight on September 14, he says he arrived at Tipton, the Missouri terminus of the Pacific railroad, at 9:05 A.M., October 9: Service, then, has been performed within the contract time, and as this pioneer trip was attended with many difficulties and embarrassments, which each successive trip will gradually remove, there is no reason to apprehend that a longer period will be required in future. On the contrary, I feel safe in expressing the opinion that a continued exertion of the energy and perseverance which have thus far characterized the operations of the Overland Mail Company, will enable the contractors to reduce the time to twenty days! The actual distances greatly exceed those specified in the mail contract, he notes, but says this is accounted for by the fact of "the 217 double necessity of keeping within reach of water, and beyond the usual range of hostile tribes of Indians." The most material variance from the contract route, Bailey remarks, occurs in Texas. He explains a saving of nearly one hundred miles might be made by running directly east from Pope's Camp on the Pecos to Fort Belknap, "along the route followed by Lieutenant Garrard and Captain Pope in 1854." But he adds that the company, "with reason," alleges that unless the government should "interpose for their protection" by building a line of military posts along that northern frontier of Texas, "it would be impossible for them to maintain the necessary stations." (This was also the route laid out by Captain Randolph Marcy in 1849, called "The California Trail" or the "Emigrants' Trail.") "From Fort Belknap," Bailey continued, "the road follows Captain Marcy's trail, portions of which the company have greatly improved at their own cost ... and crosses Red River at Colbert's Ferry." He concludes, ... the company have faithfully complied with all the conditions of the contract. The road is stocked with substantiallybuilt Concord spring wagons, capable of carrying conveniently four passengers with their baggage, and from five to six hundred pounds of mail matter. Permanent stations have been, or are being established at all the places mentioned [in an attached schedule], and where, in consequence of the scarcity of water, these are placed far apart, rclays of horses and spare drivers are sent forward with the stage to insure its prompt arrival. The various difficulties of the route, the scant supply of water, the long sand deserts, the inconvenience of keeping up stations hundreds of miles from the points from which their supplies are furnished; all these, and the many minor obstacles , naturally presented to the successful management of so long a line of stage communication, have been mel and overcome by the energy, the enterprise. and the determination of 218 the contractors. Thus far the experiment has proved successful [but] whether this great artery between the Atlantic and Pacific states is to pulsate regularly and uninterruptedly, does not, however, depend entirely upon the Overland Mail Company . They have conquered the natural difficulties ofthe route, but they have yet to encounter an enemy with whom they cannot successfully cope unaided. I refer, of course, to the tribes of hostile Indians through whose territory they necessarily pass. Their stations in Arizona are at the mercy of the Apache, and the Comanche may, at his pleasure, bar their passage through Texas. Bailey adds his testimony" ... to the necessity ... for a prompt and effectual intervention on the part of the government for the protection of the route. He notes that in the Fifth Division of the Overland...