Compiled and written by Mary Emma Gibson and Iola Potts

In 1858 Tipton could have been called "the end of the rail" or "the start of the Butterfield Overland Mail:' The Pacific Railroad line was completed to the depot in Tipton in August of 1858. This brought frenzied activity to a rapidly growing town. From all directions stagecoaches, freight haulers and mail carriers came to pick up or discharge passengers, freight, and mail. All of this activity definitely put Tipton "on the map'.' The first trip of the Butterfield Overland Mail originated in Tipton on Sept. 16, 1858 and the development of this is very awe-inspiring.

California was admitted as a state in 1850 and immediately started to demand that Congress get a transcontinental railroad built to their state. Congress battled over the proposal for six years because they could not agree upon the best route to follow to get to California. Finally California started to talk of secession if communications and overland travel were not improved to their state. Quickly Congress passed a bill to provide for two bridged and fortified wagon roads to California-one from Independence to San Francisco by way of South Pass, Salt Lake City and the Humbolt River and the other from El Paso to Los Angeles over the Gila Trail Route. There was some improvement in travel but complaining and wrangling continued. Another idea was presented to Congress. The southern route was much the best except for the sandy desert area in New Mexico and Arizona. Congress passed an appropriation for $30,000 to buy 75 camels to use in the desert portion of the route. This, however, turned out to be a failure because the sand had so much sharp rock and gravel in it that it cut up the camel's feet.

California's prime request was that mail service be improved while they waited for the railroad to be constructed. Mail to California had to leave the East Coast by boat and sail all the way around the southern tip of South America and back up to California and that took weeks. The time could be shortened by 10 days by taking the mail to Panama and carrying it overland to a waiting ship on the Pacific side of Panama. In early 1857 the Post Office Department put up for bids a contract which called for an overland mail route to California which would not exceed a time of 25 days and would run two times a week. John Butterfield was awarded the $600,000 contract. The contract stated that the mail route would have to go into operation in September 1858. It took a year of frantic and grueling work to get the route planned, built, and equipped. Butterfield chose St. Louis as his eastern terminal but when the mail route was ready to go into operation, the line had already reached Tipton. By using the railroad line he was able to draw more passengers and reduce his operating costs. To satisfy some political factions, he also had to make Memphis an eastern terminal and the Tipton route and the Memphis route met at Fort Smith Arkansas.

As soon as the contract was signed, 56 year old John Butterfield set out on a rapid survey of the route, taking a staff of helpers from four other express companies. He sent out representatives to hunt out and employ guides, scouts, and frontiersmen who were friendly with the various Indian tribes, and who knew every spring, water hole, stream ford and mountain pass on the entire route. Except for some work that the government had done on the Gila Trail and a government-operated ferry across the Colorado River, John Butterfield had to devise his own route from Tipton to San Francisco. There were rolling hills and some rough country between Tipton and Fort Smith, Arkansas. Between Fort Smith and El Paso, Texas, lay a thousand miles of wilderness. arid plains, deserts and mountains and this land was inhabited only by bands of roving Indians. The trail was an indefinite route between rivers, springs and water holes. As it left Fort Smith it crossed the Oklahoma Indian Territory to Sherman, Texas, on the El Paso and west to San Francisco. On this route there were great stretches where there was neither a drop of water or a blade of grass, and this necessitated extra planning and expense for Mr. Butterfield for he wanted the route to be comparably safe and comfortable for the passengers.

He divided the 2,975 mile route into 200 way stations and relay posts. The relay posts were close enough together that the distance could be traveled at a rapid pace under any weather conditions and without danger of exhausting mules or horses. At the end of each relay, living quarters, stables and corrals must be constructed. Two or three experienced frontiersmen were employed as guards and hostlers and a plentiful supply of hay, grain, food, firewood and water were stored at each station. At the end of each day's travels they had to provide sleeping and feeding accommodations for passengers and drivers. These stations also had to be equipped with blacksmith and harness shops and emergency horses and mules. Preparing the trail was also tedious. Bridges had to be built across streams, or ferryboats provided for the larger streams, creek banks cut down to make fording places, large rocks removed from roads, wells dug, passes through mountains cleared and the road graded enough so that the trail would be passable for travel.

Collecting the supplies was a stupendous job. Traders went out to buy the toughest and fastest horses and mules available. They bought, or had made, hundreds of sets of harness. They ordered Concord stage coaches and Celerity wagons for use on the route and heavy freight wagons for hauling the thousand tons of hay, grain, and provisions that would be required each month at the way stations and heavy tank wagons for hauling water to the arid posts.

During the year of preparation Butterfield drove his men relentlessly, and spent more than a million dollars to get the mail route ready to go into operation. In September of 1858 they had these things ready:

Most of the men Butterfield chose were rough, tough frontiersmen, for no other men could have withstood the hardships and performed the tasks he demanded of them. On his last inspection trip, he gathered his men at the relay stations for final instructions. "Above all else, passengers and mail must be protected and schedules maintained but this can only be done by keeping on friendly terms with the Indians."

Other instructions he gave were: