The Overland Mail Route — Where Should it Go?

Casey Gill has been recreating the Butterfield Overland Mail Route for some four weeks now. He's following the journey of Waterman Ormsby, a correspondent from the New York Herald  who was the only through-passenger on the first westbound Butterfield stagecoach.

Ormsby departed St. Louis on September 16, 1858, and his correspondence on the overland route to San Francisco described in great detail the politics behind where to place the stagecoach line.

Ormsby's record  reveals a strong sense of regionalism prior to the Civil War. This is not too different from any 21st century public works project to improve America's transportation infrastructure  in which settlement, access, and profit are involved. Ormsby even hinted at the boosterism  that would come with the railroad: "If the overland mail succeeds, the railroad and the telegraph will soon follow its course; the settlements along the line will be built up with rapidity..."

To obtain that first overland contract with the US Mail, John Butterfield , William G. Fargo, and a group of entrepreneurs submitted three bids to deliver the semi-weekly mail:

1. A stagecoach route between St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco, California;

2. A stagecoach route between Memphis, Tennessee and San Francisco, California; and a

3. A stagecoach route from both St. Louis and Memphis that met at the best point, then proceeded on a common line to San Francisco.

According to Ormsby, Northern interests sought to establish a vast network of railroads, and a stagecoach route would lay the groundwork for the future.

On the other hand, Southerners hoped the route would improve trade, but also had their eyes on California in the event of a "dissolution of the union," as Ormsby mentioned in 1858. Ormsby's correspondence described the various players and highlighted the regional arguments for establishing a stagecoach route:

The northern papers poured hot shot into their ears [Butterfield, Fargo, et. al.] to compel the location at St. Louis, or at least further north; while the southern papers fired bombshells on behalf of the termini at New Orleans or Memphis, and the extreme southern route...commencing at San Antonio, Texas...Columns upon columns were written to show the superiority of either or both termini.

In the end, the third option of a "bifurcated route"  was selected.

The idea of a bifurcated route (which I believe, originated with Mr. John Butterfield, the president of the company) seemed to meet all the difficulty at once. It gave termini to both the North and the South, and no advantage to either.

The enormity of establishing a stagecoach route required the "superhuman energy" of the Overland Mail Company's leaders. Butterfield, Fargo and the others had the wherewithal to establish a route that took eight months to survey, traversed 2,800 miles, required 200 stations, employed 800 people, and required the purchase of 1,500 horses!

Although, perhaps planning and running the stagecoach route was probably not as hard as handling the other "difficulties" that Orsmby described:

The adoption of this route was...attended with no ordinary difficulties, comprising as they did, all the conflicting interests in the Pacific railroad. The schemes of speculating contractors and land jobbers, the jealousies of the various sections of the union, the clashing views of the railroad companies, and the machinations of politicians, all had to be met, conciliated, or overthrown....