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U. S. Mail In Utah, 1850 to 1869

This page was last updated on October 10, 2026.

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U. S. Mail In Utah, 1850 to 1869

(The focus of this page is to show a basic timeline of how the U. S. mail was moved through Utah prior to the completion of the railroad in 1869.)

The history of transporting U.S. Mail between the Missouri River, Salt Lake City, and California during the 1850s and 1860s evolved rapidly due to shifting geopolitics, winter weather obstacles, business rivalries, and technological breakthroughs.

By 1850, in the 61 years since the nation's independence in 1789, the population of the United States grew from 4 million to over 23 million. Until 1848, migration to California was initially just a trickle. Then two pivotal events in 1848 transformed it into a flood. First was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War and ceded the Southwest to the United States. Then second, just days before the treaty was signed, was the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento. News of the discovery sparked the California Gold Rush, and the region's population exploded, creating an urgent need to connect this rapid growth with the rest of the country through the U.S. Mail.

Beginning in 1850, the U.S. Post Office initially attempted mail delivery across the central route via early, under-funded mail contracts. The first were the Woodson and Brown contracts to the east (Salt Lake City to Independence) and the Chorpenning and Woodward contracts to the west (Salt Lake City to Sacramento).

The route east of Salt Lake City used by Woodson and Brown, between Independence and Salt Lake City, was along the traditional Oregon and Mormon trails across Nebraska following the Platte and North Platte rivers, and Wyoming's South Pass into Salt Lake City.

The route west of Salt Lake City used by Chorpenning and Woodward, between Salt Lake City and California, was north of the Great Salt Lake touching into extreme southern Idaho and across northern Nevada following the Humboldt River, then over the Sierra Nevada mountain passes into California. Heavy winter snows over South Pass in Wyoming, the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, the mountains of northwestern Utah and in northeastern Nevada, and the Sierra Nevada repeatedly stranded the wagons and mule trains carrying the mail, leading to months of lost mail and public outcry.

(View a map of these early mail routes, from Hafen's "The Overland Mail, 1849-1869")

(A common and regularly referenced source for early U.S. mail service and used and cited by numerous writers, is "The Overland Mail, 1849–1869" by LeRoy R. Hafen, published in 1926. The book entered the public domain on January 1, 2022. This is an excellent book, deeply researched and very complete in its coverage.)

(Archive.org - "The Overland Mail, 1849–1869" by LeRoy R. Hafen; digitized from the original 1926 edition)

"W. G. Chorpening, in the 1850s, was proprietor of the mail line from Sacramento east to the Utah capital, there connecting with the route from St. Joseph, Mo. In the spring of 1858, Chorpening purchased ten stage-coaches, with all the necessary supplies for the route, and the vehicles were received at Atchison in August, 1858, by Missouri river steamboat. The vehicles were at once put in condition and started on their long journey across the plains, drawn by mules, in charge of experienced drivers and plainsmen." ("The Overland Stage To California," By Frank A. Root and William Elsey Connelley, 1901, page 40)

"In the later 1850s George Chorpening operated the first regular stage line between Salt Lake and Sacramento, while Russell, Majors & Waddell were at the head of the line making trips once a week between St. Joseph and Salt Lake. The through California letter mail was then being carried twice a week between St. Louis and San Francisco on the southern route by John Butterfield, the New Yorker, but the bulk of the vast mail for the Pacific, consisting of papers, public documents, books, etc., was sent from New York around by the Isthmus on an ocean steamer, the schedule being twenty-three days." ("The Overland Stage To California," By Frank A. Root and William Elsey Connelley, 1901, page 607)

"The first overland shipment of mail left for Salt Lake City in 1850. Sam Woodson had won a contract to carry the mail to Salt Lake — twelve hundred miles — once a month, over the Oregon and Salt Lake Trail. Using pack mules, a mule team, and a wagon, he carried mail and packages, making the whole trip with the same animals, camping at night. Later, relay stations were set up and a stage service was introduced, but it was always beset by troubles and maintained a poor schedule. Still, it was the best to be had for several years to come." (Nick Eggenhofer, "Wagons, Mules and Men," page 154)

Due to winter blockages along the northern path, in 1858 the Post Office changed to a southern route, creating a major change in how U. S. Mail moved west. The new route used the Butterfield Overland Mail of the 1858-1861 period, when John Butterfield won a massive $600,000 annual contract to transport transcontinental mail via the Southern Route. This new southern route departed St. Louis, curving south through Arkansas and Oklahoma, and across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, passing through Tucson and Yuma, to Los Angeles before heading north to San Francisco. It bypassed Salt Lake City entirely to guarantee year-round, snow-free delivery within 25 days. Salt Lake City was forced to rely on secondary, local mail routes such as Chorpenning's reduced northern service or an extension of the Old Spanish Trail running south to Los Angeles by way of Las Vegas.

While Butterfield ran the southern route, explorers and stage operators were proving the benefits of a direct central passage. The surveys of Howard Egan in 1855, and Army Captain James H. Simpson in 1859 identified a direct route straight across the Great Basin. This "Central Overland Route" went south from Salt Lake City to where the military post at Camp Floyd was set up in 1858, then west to the Deep Creek mountains and across central Nevada directly to Carson City, cutting 280 miles off of Chorpenning's old Humboldt River trail.

(Read more about Egan's Route across Central Nevada) (Includes information about the survey by Captain James Simpson in 1859)

(Archive.org - Howard R. Egan, "Pioneering the West, 1846–1878," 1916)

With the Central Route across Nevada established in late 1858, the mail and passenger coaches began providing service that continued until the railroad was completed across Nevada in 1869.

(Read more about Stagecoaches in Utah)

Before The Pony Express (1850-1860)

Mail West From Salt Lake City

Route Summary:

• 1850 to 1854 - Northern Route (Salt Lake City, to City of Rocks (Almo) in southern Idaho on the Raft River, then southwest into Nevada to the Humboldt River to Eagle Station (Carson City after 1858) and Genoa, then to San Francisco
• 1851 to 1854 (winter) - Southern Route (Salt Lake City to Las Vegas and San Bernardino to San Pedro, then by ocean to San Francisco)
• 1854 to 1858 - Southern Route
• 1858 (July-November) - Northern Route
• 1858 (Dec.) to 1860 - Central Route (Salt Lake City to Camp Floyd, to Carson City by the Egan-Simpson Route)
• 1860 to 1862 - Central Route
• 1861 - Overland telegraph completed (Central Route)
• 1862 to 1869 - Central Route

Contract Summary:

• 1851 to 1854 - Chorpenning contract
• 1854 to 1858 - Chorpenning contract (renewed)
• 1858 to 1860 - Chorpenning contract (canceled)
• 1860 to 1862 - Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Co. (included Pony Express) (no regular mail until 1861)
• 1862 to 1866 - Holladay's Overland Mail and Express Company
• 1866 to 1869 - Wells, Fargo & Co.

The Chorpenning and Woodward mail route west from Salt Lake City represented the first formal overland mail contract linking California with Utah and the eastern states. Running between Sacramento and Salt Lake City, the service earned its popular but informal name of the "Jackass Mail" because operators relied on pack mules to navigate the high mountain snows and the arid desert basins of the Great Basin.

George Chorpenning Jr. and Absalom Woodward were awarded a contract by the U.S. Post Office Department in early 1850 at $14,000 per year for monthly service. The contracts called for a 30-day transit time each way along an approximately 910-mile trail. The inaugural trip left Sacramento on May 1, 1851. The mule train spent 16 days breaking paths through deep snow packs in the Sierra Nevada before reaching Carson Valley.

Stations along the Central Route were sparse, often spaced 70 or more miles apart. During the first 1851 trip, Chorpenning established a permanent supply post in the Carson Valley that eventually developed into Genoa, Nevada, on the far western edge of Utah Territory, at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

In 1851, Chorpenning and his partner, Absalom Woodward, were awarded a $14,000 contract by the U.S. Post Office Department to carry the U. S. mail between Salt Lake City and California. Their contract required them to transport mail once a month between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Placerville, California.

The route chosen was along what today is known as the California Historic Trail, north from Salt Lake City around the north end of Great Salt Lake and northwest to meet the California Cutoff of the Oregon Trail at City of Rocks on the Raft River. Then southwest using the Cutoff to Granite Pass to Goose Creek, then to the Humboldt River and across northern Nevada to the Humboldt Sinks and Carson Sinks and the Carson River to Genoa, possibly passing Fort Churchill. Then from Genoa across the Sierra Nevada range to Placerville and Sacramento. (Hafen, page 66)

The Chorpenning contract called for service once a month, leaving on the first of each month at 6 a.m. The first mail left Sacramento on May 3, 1851 and arrived in Salt Lake City on June 5th, in the charge of Mr. Chorpenning. It had taken 14 days alone to pass over the Sierra Nevada mountains. (Deseret News, June 14, 1851)

In late 1851, partner Absalom Woodward and his mail party were killed by Native Americans near the Malad River in northern Utah. After Woodward's death, Chorpenning took sole control of the operations.

Snow blockades in the mountains were severe. To maintain winter delivery, Chorpenning secured permission in 1853 to reroute mail by sea down to San Pedro (Los Angeles), then overland via the Old Spanish Trail (also known as the Mormon Road), passing from Los Angeles through San Bernardino and Las Vegas to Salt Lake City.

"The contractor on the route from Salt Lake City to Sacramento, in California, never having performed efficient service on that route, this department has entered into an arrangement with another contractor, who binds himself not only to perform the service as originally required, but also to establish and maintain a fortified post or station at Carson's Valley, which will, it is expected, increase the security of the mails, and afford protection to the numerous emigrant trains on their journey to California." (Report of the Postmaster-General for 1852, dated December 4, 1852)

After the carriers "endured frightful sufferings" due to severe winter weather, in February 1852 permission was obtained "to send the March mail down the coast to San Pedro and thence by the Cajon Pass and the Mormon trail to Salt Lake City. During the summer of 1852 the service continued to be performed across northern Nevada by way of the Humboldt River; but as winter approached, arrangements were made with the mail agent at San Francisco to carry the Utah mail via Los Angeles during the winter months." (Hafen, Page 64)

The Postmaster-General's report for the year 1857 showed that on March 3, 1857 Congress had instructed the Postmaster General to settle financial claims submitted by George Chorpenning, Jr., individually and as the surviving partner of Woodward & Chorpenning. Those claims included:

• Chorpenning claimed compensation for carrying U.S. mail via San Pedro, which the Post Office had denied because the contract of 1851 did not stipulate the exact route to be taken, whether by land across Nevada (Utah Territory at the time) using the so-called Northern Route, or by the combination sea from San Francisco to San Pedro, then by land to Salt Lake City. The settlement compensated Chorpenning for this extra service.
• The settlement required compensating Chorpenning for damages caused by the suspension/annulment of the mail route contract between Sacramento, California, and Salt Lake, Utah Territory, including full contract pay during its suspension from March 15 to July 1, 1853.
• Starting July 1, 1853, Chorpenning was awarded a set rate of $30,000 per year, which replaced his former $14,000 annual contract rate and his subsequent $12,500 annual contract rate for monthly mail service along the Sacramento–Salt Lake route.

April 28, 1853
"The statement about the revocation of the 'California Mail Contract,' as it was termed, has been ridiculously blundered. The facts are, Messrs. Woodward and Chorpenning held a contract for carrying a mail between Sacramento, California, and Salt Lake—compensation fourteen thousand dollars a year. In consequence of complaints of mail failures, Mr. Hubbard, late Postmaster General, took the service from them and gave it to W. L. Blanchard, at fifty thousand dollars a year. The only apparent reason for this enormous increase of pay is the insertion of a clause providing, in vague terms, for the establishment of a military post. As the Post Office Department has not yet assumed the duties of the War Department, the value of the clause can readily be estimated. It has recently come to light that the failures of the mail under the former contract arose from the trifling fact that one of the contractors was shot whilst in the discharge of the duty. Upon these facts being ascertained, Judge Campbell very properly rescinded the contract with Blanchard, and revived the former contract with the surviving contractor, thus doing justice, and saving a large sum of money besides." (New York Daily Herald, April 28, 1853)

The Daily Alta California newspaper of December 1, 1853, printed in Sacramento, reported in an item about the Mormons living in the San Bernardino Valley, "The distance from Salt Lake City is about 800 miles in a southwest direction. The road is good, considerably better than any other from Bear River to the Pacific. The greater part of the way there is plenty of water and grass, and in some places there is timber."

(Note that this refers to the difficult road from the Bear River northwesterly to City of Rocks on the Raft River, then southwesterly along the California Trail across northern Nevada by following the Humboldt River. This was the northern road followed by Chorpenning on his mail contract. Thus it is no surprise that Chorpenning chose this southern route to San Bernardino and San Pedro as a way to avoid the winter weather on the mountain passes.)

1854 Changes

New contract, April 1854

"In the [contract] lettings of 1854, the Utah-California mail route was changed to run from Salt Lake City over the Mormon trail to San Diego." (Hafen note: "This was in general the route discovered and explored by Jedediah Smith in 1826 and again traversed by him in 1827. J. C. Fremont returned from California by this route in 1844. The Mormons used it after 1847.") (Hafen, Page 66)

From U.S. Congressional Serial Set 789, page 712:

• Contract made with George Chorpenning, Jr., dated April 22, 1854, at $12,500: to commence July 1, 1854; to expire June 30, 1858.
• Leave Salt Lake City on the 20th of each month; arrive at San Diego by the 18th ot the next month.
• Leave San Diego on the 20th of each month; arrive at Salt Lake City by the 18th of the next month.

"The terminus on this mail route was changed from San Diego to San Pedro, November 13, 1854. - Chorpenning, Statement, Appendix, 7." (Hafen, Page 66)

(Hafen, page 66, notes that Howard Egan made a journey over this trail in the winter of 1849-1850. His diary gives a good description of the route. -Egan, W. M., editor. Pioneering the West, 1846-1878, pp. 169-180.)

(Read the account of Howard Egan and his company as they traveled the road in 1849-1850; direct link to Archive.org)

(By the 1851-1858 period when the route was used by contractors for the U. S. mail, the trail between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles/San Pedro was well-established and was in regular use.)

(Read the Wikipedia article about the Morman Road, from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles and San Pedro by way of Las Vegas)

(Read more about the Mormon Trail at FamilySearch.org; includes a map)

August 22, 1854
"Rather Slow. — By the arrival of the mails from Salt Lake on yesterday, via San Bernardino, we were placed in possession of files of the Desert News to May 25th. On the 3d of July we published full particulars of all interesting intelligence from Utah Territory down to June 4th, ten days later than our advices by this arrival. Dates to the 1st August from the Great Salt Lake City are fully due at this place." (Sacramento Daily Union, August 22, 1854)

Among the laws passed by Congress in 1854 in the most recent session were: "An act to provide for the construction of a military road from Great Salt Lake city, in the territory of Utah, to the eastern boundary of the State of California. Approved July 17, 1854. And, "An act constituting San Pedro, in California, a port of entry and delivery. Approved August 3, 1854." (Daily Alta California, September 2, 1854; the delays in receiving news of these new laws are an indication of how long it was taking the mail to reach California.)

Government payment on the Chorpenning contract became an issue almost immediately. The June 6, 1857 issue of the Washington Express newspaper made note of a long delayed settlement. Among the activities of the 34th Congress, 3rd Session, ending on March 3, 1857 was the passage of the "An act for the relief of George Chorpenning, Jr." authorizing the Postmaster General to settle claims and financial adjustments regarding U.S. mail delivery services:

• The Act authorized a pay increase for carrying mail via San Pedro, and supplying the post office in Carson's Valley.
• The Act granted full contract pay during the suspension period (March 15, 1853 – July 1, 1853). From July 1, 1853, onward through the contract's end, it set payment at $30,000, increased from the original contract rate of $14,000.

March 28, 1855
The Deseret News of March 28, 1855, published a notice by the Salt Lake City Postmaster that "The California mail, via Fillmore, Parowan, and Cedar City, U.T., and San Bernardino, Cal., to San Pedro, will leave the 1st day and arrived the 28th of every month." The notices continued on a weekly basis through February 1856. (Deseret News, March 28, 1855)

April 1, 1857
"Mr. Egan informs us that the Postmaster at San Francisco is very properly endeavoring to have such alterations made as will enable the down mail steamers to connect with our southern mail at San Pedro. According to present arrangements the last steamer of each month does not arrive at San Pedro until after the mail has left for Utah, thus leaving the largest, the latest, and the most important portion of our mail matter almost invariably one month behind its just time. This is a very ridiculous arrangement, inasmuch as the mail is but monthly at the best, and we trust that the Department at Washington will speedily alter schedule times so as to admit of forming connections on such long and important lines." (Deseret News, April 1, 1857)

Chorpenning's New Route, 1858

New contract, April 1858

In 1858, George Chorpenning changed the route of his mail contract from the Northern Route along the Humboldt River, to the central Nevada route. The route change was made to avoid the severe winters in the Goose Creek country that made the original northern route too difficult to continue using.

Chorpenning also secured a new contract upgrading the route to semi-monthly and eventually weekly mail coach service, adopting shorter trail through central Nevada pioneered by Howard Egan 1855 and U.S. Army Capt. James Simpson in 1859, using a route surveyed across central Nevada. The new path reportedly followed the Beckwith Trail to Ruby Valley.

(Read more about Capt. James Simpson's Route across Central Nevada) (Includes information about the route being pioneered by Howard Egan in 1855)

After establishing this new route, he dispatched a column of fifty wagons and over 300 animals from Salt Lake City on November 21, 1858. The first stage to use the new "Ruby Valley shortcut" departed on November 29, 1858. (Oregon-California Trails Association)

"Chorpenning (in April, 1858) had taken another contract for carrying the mails between Salt Lake and Placerville, Cal., in four-horse coaches. It appeared that he was specially selected to do this service, because in his previous action in carrying out his contract he had given the strongest proof of efficiency and fidelity, so much so as to be a preferred contractor. But, owing to the failure of the Post-Office appropriation bill in March, 1859, the Postmaster-General deemed it necessary to reduce the mail-service thereby entailing heavy burdens upon this contractor in largely reducing his pay while the expenses of his line went on. Thus a dispute arose between Mr. Chorpenning and the Post-Office Department as to the rate of compensation which he should receive. Finally, in May, 1860, and while it had still two years to run, the contract was annulled." (George Chorpenning, June 16, 1874, 43d Congress, 1st Session. House of Representatives. Report No. 653)

(Passenger coach service was initiated with the introduction of four-horse coaches along the route.)

(The official mail contract between St. Louis and California was in the hands of John Butterfield's Overland Stage Company, traveling along the Southern Route, 1858-1861. There were mail contracts for service between the Missouri River and Salt Lake City (the Hockaday contract), and between Salt Lake City and Placerville in California (the Chorpenning contract). But these were separate contracts, with the Chorpenning contract across Nevada seeing almost constant disruption.)

November 1859
A financial "attachment" was placed on the property and livestock of the western division of George Chorpenning's company. Upon hearing of this, Howard Egan took it upon himself to take the first coach to travel along the new central route, all the way from Salt Lake City to Placerville. Egan was superintendent of the company's eastern division, and had passed along the entire eastern division in just five days. He then sent a person to Placerville to act as an agent to accept any mail being presented for delivery to Salt Lake City. The delivery of the mail to Chorpenning's own agent in Placerville was being delayed by persons wanting to take the contract for themselves, and who were using political tactics to cause those delays. (Deseret News, November 8, 1859)

After the Pony Express started in April 1860, and due to regular delays and pressure from local, regional and national politicians, on May 11, 1860, the Postmaster General cancelled the existing mail contract with George Chorpenning and offered it to Russell, Majors and Waddell's Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Co.

(The Russell, Majors and Waddell partnership was deeply in debt by May 1860, and sorely needed the Salt Lake City to Sacramento mail contract for the survival of the company. -- Raymond Settle and Mary Lund Settle, "War Drums and Wagon Wheels," 1966, page 115)

"Mail Items — Major Chorpenning has lost the contract for the Salt Lake and California line. Messrs. Russell and Jones, who have had the contract for the eastern division of the line from St. Joseph, are the lucky successors." (The Salt Lake City Mountaineer, May 26, 1860)

The mail and passenger coach service along the Central Route was used by Chorpenning until 1858, then by the Russell, Majors & Waddell's Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company when they took over the Butterfield contract in spring 1861. It took some time to fully establish the the new service after shutting down the Southern Route, so it wasn't until July 1, 1861 that the first westbound coach of departed St. Joseph, Missouri. That same coach arrived in San Francisco on July 18th.

But Chorpenning's legacy remained in the form of the central Nevada route with its station placements and trail alignments pioneered by Chorpenning's mule trains and his later coaches. These were immediately absorbed by Russell, Majors & Waddell's Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company and operated by both its mail coaches and passenger coaches, and that same company's Pony Express, and subsequently by Ben Holladay’s Overland Mail Company through 1862.

Mail East From Salt Lake City

Route Summary:

• 1850 to 1860 - Emigrant Trail across Nebraska (Platte and North Platte rivers into Wyoming), to South Pass, to Fort Bridger, to Echo Canyon, to Salt Lake City by way of East Canyon
• 1860 to 1869 - Emigrant Trail to Julesburg, to Denver, to Laramie, to Fort Bridger, to Echo Canyon, to Salt Lake City by way of Parleys Park and Canyon (Kimball's and Hardy's stations)

Contract Summary:

• 1850 to 1854 - Woodson & Brown contract
• 1854 to 1856 - Magraw contract (canceled)
• 1857 - Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company contract (canceled)
• 1858 to 1860 - Hockaday contract
• 1860 to 1862 - Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company (included Pony Express) (no regular mail until 1861)
• 1860-1861 - Pony Express continued using the Emigrant Trail by way of South Pass in central Wyoming
• 1861 - Overland telegraph completed, by way of South Pass
• 1862 to 1866 - Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company (new route by way of Julesburg and Laramie to Fort Bridger)
• 1866 to 1869 - Wells, Fargo & Co.

The mail route to the East connected Salt Lake City with Independence, on the Missouri River south of Kansas City. The route followed the established Mormon and Oregon emigrant trails eastward from Salt Lake City to Fort Bridger, to South Pass, then along the Platte River to Fort Laramie and eastward across Nebraska. The route took the path across the mountains of northeastern Utah and central Wyoming and across the Great Plains.

Woodson & Brown Contract, 1850

Woodson & Brown -- The Post Office awarded the first monthly mail contract on this leg in 1850 to Samuel H. Woodson and James Brown. After Brown's death in late 1850, Woodson operated the route. To handle the stretch between Fort Laramie and Salt Lake City, Woodson subcontracted the mountain leg to Mormon courier Feramorz Little in 1851. The Woodson contract was a four-year contract, and was in effect from 1850 to 1854.

Magraw Contract, 1854

In 1854, William F. Magraw secured a four-year contract for monthly service. Magraw also suffered from delays and disruptions from winter storms in the mountains, and Indian troubles across the plains. The Post Office canceled his contract in late 1856.

August 18, 1856
The contract with Magraw was canceled, to take effect on August 18, 1856. (H.R. 186, 34th Congress, 1st Session, dated May 23, 1856; "An Act for the Relief of William M. F. Magraw.")

(The "Act" included the payment to Magraw $36,000 in lieu of the present contract price, together with $17,750 for damage to property and property stolen by the Indians.)

During the early Woodson and Magraw years, deep winter snows through South Pass and the Wasatch Mountains frequently made wagons impossible to use. Carriers switched to pack mules and snowshoes, with coaches being used between the difficult portions of the route.

Brigham Young Express Contract, 1857

In 1857 Brigham Young and Mormon leaders established the Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company, known as the Y.X. company, or "Young Express," the company built a robust freighting and mail network. Mormon contractor Hiram Kimball won the route in early 1857 and began building permanent stone stations, feed stores, and livestock posts along the trail.

(Read more about the Y.X. Company)

(Service by the Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company had commenced on February 8, 1857; but was canceled with the service ending on July 1, 1857.)

As of January 6, 1858, the mail arriving in Salt Lake City from San Pedro carried dates of December 5, 1857 from Southern California; November 28, 1857 from San Francisco; and November 1, 1857 from the Eastern states. Mail from the East was coming by way of ocean and Panama, suggesting that the overland route was closed due either no contract carrier, or winter weather, of both. (Deseret News, January 6, 1858)

U. S. Army In Utah, 1858-1861

On June 26, 1858, the Utah Expedition of the U. S. Army marched through Salt Lake City, and proceeded south to a site that became Camp Floyd, 45 miles south of Salt Lake City.

By May 1860 when the troops began their departure to the East to attend to tensions with the Southern states, there were well over 3,500 men stationed at Camp Floyd, reported as being a third of the active U. S. Army. The departures continued through late July 1861, when the last garrison of ten companies departed for the East, abandoning the camp, and millions of dollars worth of equipment and supplies.

(Read more about the U. S. Army and Camp Floyd)

Hockaday Contract, 1858

In 1858, following the Utah War, and the cancellation of the Y.X. company's contract in June 1857, John M. Hockaday and David D. Liggett took over the mail contract, shifting the eastern terminus slightly north from Kansas City to St. Joseph, Missouri. They upgraded service to a weekly schedule with a 22-day transit time using mules and light "spring" wagons. The Hockaday and Liggett contract went into effect on May 1, 1858, and was supposed to last until November 1860.

John M. Hockaday was initially awarded the mail contract on April 1, 1858, for weekly service carrying mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Salt Lake City, Utah, on a 25-day schedule at $190,000 per year.

The mail contract with John M. Hockaday (with various partners including William H. Russell) was changed from the original monthly schedule of 25 days, to a monthly schedule taking 22 days at the same $190,000 annual compensation.

In early 1859, Postmaster General Joseph Holt, facing severe Post Office Department budget deficits, implemented sweeping cost-saving measures across western mail routes. On April 14, 1859 (or April 7, 1859), Holt issued orders changing the frequency of service on the central route.

"On May 11, 1859, Hockaday and Liggit sold their contract to Jones, Russell & Company, a subsidiary of Russell, Majors & Waddell." (Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, Number 2, page 145)

(The Settles, in their book "War Drums and Wagon Wheels," page 99, give the date as July 1, 1859, which was likely the date operations began.)

At this time, under Jones and Russel ownership, the contract was changed to a semi-monthly (twice a month) schedule taking 15 days at $130,000 (or $125,000) per year effective July 1, 1859.

(The Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, Number 2, 1963, page 127-150, presents a detailed account of the questionable dealings of Hockaday and his partners concerning the mail contract.)

Russell, Majors & Waddell Contract, 1859

May 1859
The partnership of William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell bought out Hockaday's contract in May 1859, with the Jones & Russell's Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express company as a subsidiary.

(Read more about the Russell, Majors and Waddell partnership)

At the same time, the Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express company took over the Chorpenning contract between Salt Lake City and Placerville. In both cases, in addition to mail coaches, this included the Pony Express and regular passenger coaches.

(The Leavenworth and Pikes Peak Express Company was founded by William H. Russell and John S. Jones. It was established as a freight and stage line to operate between Leavenworth, Kansas, and Denver, Colorado, capitalizing on the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. The first coach arrived in Denver on March 9, 1859. The enterprise had a short life under that name. On February 13, 1860, it was reorganized and renamed the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company.)

From Nick Eggenhofer, "Wagons, Men and Mules," page 156.

(Research in multiple sources suggests that when mail service was started by the Leavenworth & Pikes Peak Express company in May 1859, between Atchison and Salt Lake City, the service included both mail service and passenger service. The new service used four-horse Concord coaches, and all indications are that the route was by way of Three Mile canyon. As the Territorial road through Silver Creek canyon was improved in the early 1860s, the route was changed and a post office was established in Wanship in 1864.)

In March 1860 the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company was a company organized by Russell, Majors & Waddell to take over the Hockaday contract and operate as a contractor for the U. S. mail. The new company was a consolidation of Jones & Russell's Leavenworth & Pikes Peak Express Company, and the former Hockaday contract.

(Wikipedia - Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company)

Prior to this change for this eastern mail route, the mail coaches had traveled along the established Emigrant Trail along the Platte, North Platte and Sweetwater rivers across Nebraska and Wyoming, crossing the Continental Divide at South Pass, and continuing past Fort Bridger into Salt Lake City. After the change, the mail and passenger coaches traveled what was called the Smoky Hill Route across Kansas to Denver

By mid-1860, Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express company controlled the entire Central Route from the Missouri River to California. They launched the Pony Express in April 1860 as a rapid horse-relay premium letter service over the same route as the company's mail coaches. In March 1861, Congress authorized a daily overland mail route, which was subsequently awarded to Ben Holladay's stagecoach empire in 1862, fully replacing the earlier, fragmented mail contracts.

(This suggests that the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company continued to operate as a contractor of the Post Office, moving mail under the former Hockaday contract between Leavenworth, Kansas, and Salt Lake City until March 1861 when the Butterfield Overland Mail Company, by this time fully controlled by Wells, Fargo & Co., transferred Butterfield's former Overland Mail Company's coaches, animals and employees from the Southern Route to the Central Route. The Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express company was selected as a subcontractor to the Butterfield company for both eastern and western legs of the contract, although the specific corporate arrangements were slightly different. Research has found that the Wells, Fargo & Co., and other eastern express companies were the majority shareholders in the California companies, as well as financial backers of the Russell, Majors and Waddell partnership.)

In severe winters when South Pass was completely blocked, eastbound/westbound mail from Salt Lake City was occasionally detoured thousands of miles south via the Old Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, then by the southern Butterfield route to Independence.

March 16, 1861
The Overland Mail Company was mandated by the Postmaster General on March 12, 1861 to change its route from the Southern Route to the Central Route, in accordance with the public law passed by Congress on March 2, 1861. On March 16, 1861, the Overland Mail Company and the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company signed a contract that put the latter company as the operating company of the eastern leg of the Central Route, serving Denver and Salt Lake City, with a specific division of costs, revenues and penalties. (Hafen, "Overland Mail," page 214, 217; Settles, "War Drums and Wagon Wheels," page 163, 164)

The Pony Express (1860-1861)

Pony Express Milestones:

• April 7, 1860 - Service begins
• October 26, 1861 - Service ends

Telegraph Milestones:

• June 16, 1860 - The Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860 was passed by Congress and signed into law by President James Buchanan.
• June 20, 1861 - Construction of the western portion of the Overland Telegraph Company's telegraph line began eastward across Nevada from Fort Churchill, Nevada Territory.
• July 2, 1861 - Construction of the eastern portion of the Pacific Telegraph Company's telegraph line began westward from Omaha, and St. Joseph across Nebraska and Wyoming.
• October 18, 1861 - The telegraph line of the Pacific Telegraph Company reached Salt Lake City from the east (about 934 miles).
• October 24, 1861 - The telegraph line of the Overland Telegraph Company reached Salt Lake City from the west (about 510 miles), completing the transcontinental telegraph.

The Pony Express in 1860–1861 was operated by Russell, Majors and Waddell's Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company. The partners already operated the largest freighting company in the West. A trace of the central route used by the Pony Express took it from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Fort Kearney in western Nebraska, to Fort Laramie in eastern Wyoming, to South Pass, and on to Fort Bridger in southwestern Wyoming. From Fort Bridger, the route was to Salt Lake City across Nevada to Sacramento. Delivery took 10 days, proving the central route could handle rapid mail year-round.

(Read more about the Pony Express in Utah, 1860 and 1861)

The Southern Route (1858-1861)

Beginning in 1858, Butterfield Overland Mail Company held a U. S. mail contract and operated along a route between St. Louis and San Francisco by way of what was known as the Southern Route. The Pony Express along the Central Route, and the Butterfield Overland Mail Company along the Southern Route operated concurrently from April 1860 to March 1861, about 11 months. Also, under separate contracts, regular mail was being moved along the route between the Missouri River and Salt Lake City, and between Salt Lake City and California.

(Archive.org - "The Overland Stage to California." by Frank Root and William Connelley, 1901)

(HathiTrust.org - The First Overland Mail, Butterfield Trail, St. Louis to San Francisco, 1858-1861, by Walter B. Lang, 1940)

(HathiTrust.org - The Butterfield Overland Mail, 1857-1869, by Roscoe P. Conkling and Margaret B. Conkling, 1947, Volume 1)

(HathiTrust.org - The Butterfield Overland Mail, 1857-1869, by Roscoe P. Conkling and Margaret B. Conkling, 1947, Volume 2)

(Wikipedia - The Butterfield Overland Mail)

From Nick Eggenhofer's "Wagons, Mules and Men," page 155.

The following comes from Hafen's "The Overland Mail, 1849–1869," with citations as noted.

The Postmaster-General's report for 1857 included an extensive narrative and reasoning for the change in route due to winter weather conditions along the Northern Route. An act of Congress dated March 3, 1857 gave the Postmaster General authority to advertise the new Southern route, specifically stating that the contractor selected "for the conveyance of the entire letter mail from such point on the Mississippi river as the contractors may select to San Francisco, in the State of California, for six years," at a cost not exceeding $300,000 per year semi-monthly service, $450,000 per year for weekly service, or $600,000 per year for semi-weekly service. Also that "the contract shall require the service to be performed with good four-horse coaches or spring wagons, suitable for the conveyance of passengers as well as the safety and security of the mails." Also that "said service shall be performed within twenty-five days for each trip." Bids were to be submitted by June 1, 1857.

(The notice of the bid included comments that the use of four-horse coaches instead of spring wagons would allow passenger service in addition to mail service. None of the bids mentioned passenger service, but it was, in fact, initiated at the same time as mail service.)

The Butterfield bid was among the nine bids submitted (including two others by the Butterfield group, with slight variations of the route), and read as follows: "John Butterfield, William B. Dinsmore, William G. Fargo, James V. P. Gardner, Marcus L. Kinyon, Hamilton Spencer, and Alexander Holland: From St. Louis, by Springfield, and from Memphis, by Little Rock, connecting at a common point at or eastward of Albuquerque; thence west, to and along the military road to Colorado river; thence up the valley of the Mohahoc [Mojave] river, to and through the Tejon [Tehachapi] passes of the Sierra Nevada; and thence along the best route to San Francisco."

On July 2, 1857, "after full and mature consideration," the Postmaster and his two assistants selected and accepted the following bid: "Route 12,578. From St. Louis, Missouri, and from Memphis, Tennessee, converging at Little Rock, Arkansas; thence, via Preston, Texas, or as nearly so as may be found advisable, to the best point of crossing the Rio Grande, above El Paso, and not far from Fort Fillmore; thence, along the new road being opened and constructed under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to Fort Yuma, California; thence, through the best passes, and along the best valleys for safe and expeditious staging, to San Francisco."

On September 11, 1857, the connecting point was changed from Little Rock, to Preston, Texas, on the Texas-Oklahoma border, and on September 16, 1857, the contract was signed and finalized. The contract was to be in effect for a period of six years, until September 15, 1864.

(Read the full narrative, the bids, the full final contract, and the discussion of the change in route, 21 pages, at the HathiTrust.org)

September 16, 1857
"A six-year contract dated September 16, 1857, was let to John Butterfield of the Overland Mail Company, a concern formed by the Adams, the American, the National, and the Wells Fargo express companies. Thus the Southern route won the first round in the 'Battle of the Routes,' which had hampered the establishment of adequate mail service to California since 1855." (Raymond Settle and Mary Lund Settle, "War Drums and Wagon Wheels," 1966, page 110)

The Butterfield Overland Mail (Southern Route) operated from September 15, 1858, to March 1, 1861, running from St. Louis and Memphis through Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Los Angeles to San Francisco.

(HathiTrust.org - Read the account of Waterman Ormsby, the first through passenger on the Butterfield Overland stage, St. Louis to San Francisco in 1858)

The Postmaster-General's report for 1859 showed that the contract to transport the mail from St. Louis and Memphis, via El Paso, to San Francisco cost the department $600,000 per year, but only yielded $27,230 in revenue, with the $600,000 figure being mandated by the Congress itself, and the submitted bids matching. This resulted in a loss of $570,770, the cost "for carrying a few sacks of letters from the valley of the Mississippi to San Francisco, through a waste and uninhabited country," which was reported as equal to the total cost of furnishing postal service to three states: Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. Such Congressional mandates opened the process to "an almost illimitable field for mercenary intrigue and spoliation."

(Read the full 1859 Postmaster-General's report at HathiTrust.org)

Despite the political controversy and the extra 800 miles, when John Butterfield organized his Overland Mail Company, he favored the Southern Route because it avoided the heavy winter snows of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, allowing his stages to maintain a year-round, 25-day delivery schedule, as stipulated in the original Overland Mail Act of 1857.

Wells, Fargo & Co., had loaned John Butterfield the funds for starting the Southern Route in 1858. By March 1860 Butterfield was even further in debt, at which time Wells Fargo & Co. took direct control over operations and forced Butterfield out as president.

April 11, 1860
"In the Senate to-day" "After a lengthy discussion on a motion by Mr. Gwin to take up the Overland Mail route bill - during which Messrs. Hale and Benjamin spoke of the Butterfield route as an ox-bow route, and denounced it as a great Government mistake and an encumbrance to the adoption of a true overland mail system." (Washington D.C. Evening Star, April 11, 1860)

The Pony Express operated along the Central Route from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, from St. Joseph, Missouri, through Salt Lake City to Sacramento.

The overlap ended in March 1861 when Congress ordered the Butterfield route moved north to the Central Route due to the outbreak of the Civil War and Texas seceding from the Union.

When the transcontinental telegraph was completed in October 1861, the Pony Express was immediately rendered obsolete.

After The Pony Express (1861-1869)

Southern Route Closed (1861)

The onset of the Civil War in early 1861 forced the Federal government to abandon the Butterfield's Southern route after Confederate separatists destroyed several Butterfield stage stations and stole the livestock. This was due to Texas seceding from the Union in February 1861. All transcontinental U. S. Mail was legally moved to the Central Route.

Before the Civil War, the Butterfield's Overland Mail Company operated the famous 2,800-mile Southern Route which carried mail from St. Louis and Memphis through Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico to San Francisco, California.

• February 1, 1861: Texas voted to secede from the Union. Almost immediately Texas Confederates and local bandits began raiding stations, seizing livestock, and destroying equipment.
• March 2, 1861: Recognizing that a hostile Confederacy would block federal mail from passing to the Pacific coast, the U.S. Congress officially passed an act discontinuing the Southern route. They ordered the mail route to be permanently diverted away from Texas to a central path through St. Joseph, Missouri, and Salt Lake City.
• March 21, 1861: The very last mail coach left the Texas section, effectively closing federal mail transit through the state for the duration of the war.

Following the collapse of the Union's Southern route, the Confederacy officially took total control of all Texas post offices and internal mail delivery by May 1861. This completely severed standard postal communication between the Union states and California by way of Texas and the Southern Route.

Central Route Opened (1861)

March 30, 1861
"W. H. Russell, the founder of the pony express, has concluded a contract with the overland mail company, transferred by the last Congress to the central route, to run the mail and pony from the Missouri River connecting with the overland company at Salt Lake City." (Salt Lake City Mountaineer, March 30, 1861)

June 1, 1861
"On the evening of the 28th, Mr. Buckley, the Superintendent elect of the western portion of the Overland Mail Route, arrived in this city, accompanied by Major Egan, Mr. B. Roberts, Mr. Cluggage, Mr. P. Lynch, and others. Some four or five hundred mules and horses were already being forwarded to the stations on the route, and would be where they were required in a few days. Wells, Fargo & Co. will probably have the control of, at least, the Western portion of the line. They are a strong firm, and we may hope for prompt mails." (Salt Lake City Mountaineer, June 1, 1861)

July 1, 1861
The first westbound coach of Russell, Majors & Waddell's Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company departed St. Joseph, Missouri. The coach arrived in San Francisco on July 18th, three days shorter that Butterfield's Southern Route. ("Ben Holladay, The Stagecoach King," published in 1940, page 63)

After the Pony Express along the Central Route was closed in October 1861, stages took over the Central Route for the U. S. Mail .

(The transcontinental telegraph was completed in October 1861. Brigham Young took advantage of being able to send the first telegram from Salt Lake City to the East on October 18, 1861, by addressing it to President Abraham Lincoln and assuring him that the people of Utah Territory were loyal to the United States.)

(The Pony Express, operated by Russell, Majors & Waddell's Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, carried the part of the U. S. Mail that senders paid a premium for, to receive the fastest service possible. Until March 1861 the regular U. S. Mail traveled to California by the Southern Route, in Butterfield's stages, maintaining the 25-day schedule as mandated by Congress in 1857. With the Butterfield mail service ending in March 1861 due to the start of the Civil War, the regular U. S. Mail was transferred to the Central Route, using mail coaches both east and west of Salt Lake City. As noted above, the first mail coach on the Central Route made its first trip in July 1861. The completion of the transcontinental telegraph in October 1861 put an end to the premium mail services provided by the Pony Express. The mail coaches continued carrying letters, magazines, books and newspapers, known as "other mail matter.")

The transfer from the Southern Route to the Central Route was enacted by the 36th Congress on March 2, 1861, via the annual Post Office Appropriation Act for the Fiscal Year of July 1, 1861 to June 30, 1862 (12 Stat. 204, 206).

With the Southern states seceding and the impending outbreak of the Civil War, Congress passed the act to discontinue the Southern Route running through Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas and modify the existing contract with John Butterfield's Overland Mail Company.

The Congressional act directed the Postmaster General to modify the contract with John Butterfield's Overland Mail Company, transferring service away from the Southern Route to the Central Overland Route from St. Joseph, Missouri, via Salt Lake City, to Placerville, California. The contract was adjusted to provide daily mail delivery by coach along the Central Route, along with a semi-weekly letter express mail service (the Pony Express) until the transcontinental telegraph was completed. The annual subsidy was increased to $1,000,000 (about $35 million today).

From the book, "Ben Holladay, The Stagecoach King," published in 1940, page 61.

As noted above, the final runs on the southern route ended on March 21, 1861. Equipment and stock were relocated northward over the spring and summer of 1861, and official service on the Central Overland Route under the modified contract commenced on July 1, 1861.

The Overland Mail and Express Company (the official corporate name of the "Butterfield" line) officially retained the overall $1 million annual contract from the Post Office Department. However, because they had no existing infrastructure, stations, or stock along the Central Route, they divided the operations into two divisions, Western and Eastern, meeting at Salt Lake City, and subcontracted the actual operations of the two divisions.

Western Division

The Western Division was that portion from Salt Lake City to Sacramento. On May 11, 1860, the Postmaster General cancelled the existing mail contract with George Chorpenning and offered it to Russell & Jones' Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Co. The contract paid enough to cover the cost of running the Pony Express for mail between Salt Lake City and Sacramento. The Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company continued to operate the mail coach service west of Salt Lake City until 1862.

The Western Division (Salt Lake City to Placerville) was operated directly by Butterfield's Overland Mail and Express Company, which by then was controlled by Wells, Fargo & Co. interests.

Eastern Division

The Eastern Division (St. Joseph to Salt Lake City) was subcontracted to the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company, an existing company founded in 1860 by William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell (who also operated the Pony Express). They received $475,000 of the mail subsidy to cover this segment.

When William H. Russell and John S. Jones established the Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Company in early 1859 to deliver mail to Denver and the Colorado gold fields, the stages traveled straight west across Kansas along the Republican River then along the Smoky Hill river. Known as the Smoky Hill Route, the path was found to be short on water and grazing for animals. In May 1859, Russell and Jones bought Hockaday's mail contract, which stipulated a path across Nebraska along the Platte River. Operations commenced on July 1, 1859.

At today's Julesburg (then known as California Crossing), the route used by Russell and Jones turned toward Denver along the South Platte River to Denver. From Denver the path passed northward through LaPorte (near the location after 1862 of Fort Collins) and Laramie, and across southern Wyoming to rejoin the emigrant trail at Fort Bridger in southwestern Wyoming.

The Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Company established a stage station at California Crossing and the point where the trails separated. They appointed a French-Canadian fur trader named Jules Beni as the station agent, and the trading post and stage stop naturally came to be known as Julesburg in his honor.

The new route was occasionally referred to in newspaper accounts as the Cherokee Trail. But the route east of Salt Lake City, and the new Eastern Division, only used that part of the Cherokee Trail between Denver and Laramie. At its full length, the path of the Cherokee Trail took it from its connection with the Santa Fe Trail at La Junta, Colorado, then north to Denver and LaPorte (Fort Collins), then to Laramie, along the path of today's U.S. 287. The new route was also known as the "Laramie route."

Echo To Salt Lake City (Mail Coaches)

(Research has not yet found the specific route taken by the Overland Mail coaches between Echo and Salt Lake City, other than vague descriptions of the route taken.)

As late as May 1859, the mail coaches were using the road over Big Mountain Pass, by way of Henefer and East Canyon. (Deseret News, May 11, 1859)

The Mountain "Dale" Station was located below Big Mountain, at the base of the climb over Little Mountain. The historical marker there reads, "In 1857, Ephraim Hanks established a ranch and way station for travelers near the evergreens in the canyon below. It served as an Overland Stage stop and a Pony Express station."

By 1860, the Overland mail was turning south at Echo and along the Weber River to Rockport and through Three Mile Canyon. "By 1861 Silver Creek Canyon was opened and that was the route the stage coach traveled. The stage coach had a box under the seat for mail, and passengers rode in the coach." The Pony Express continued using the original Pioneer trail. "These were two distinct enterprises. Even though at times the roads were impassable for the coach, the mail was carried 'mule back.'" (Echoes of Yesterday, Summit County, published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1947, page 22)

February 30, 1861
"The stage driver informs us that the roads east, from the foot of the Big Mountain to the South Pass are excellent for this season of the year. Unless the roads further east have been in a different condition, some other cause than snow has retarded the mail. The Pony riders, as far east as heard from, had seen nothing of the letter or the paper mail." (Deseret News, February 30, 1861)

(This suggests that the stages were still using the route from Echo to Henefer, to Big Mountain, and that the road east of Echo into central Wyoming was not affected by winter weather.)

Hank's Station

In January 1862, the mail coaches were using Ephraim Hanks' station at Mountain Dell, but it is not yet known if the coaches continued eastward over Parleys Summit, or if they turned north up Little Dell canyon and continued over Big Mountain Pass. (Deseret News, January 22, 1862)

Using modern measuring tools, the original Hanks' Station on the Pony Express was at the base of Little Mountain Hill along Mountain Dell Creek, originally known as Big Mountain Creek. It was about 11.3 miles east of Salt Lake City by way of Emigration Canyon and Little Mountain Summit. References to Hanks' Station ended in online newspapers in March 1862.

(Research suggests that the mail and passenger coaches began using the route through Three Mile Canyon and across Parleys Park as early as January 1860, which was likely when the station at Kimball's Ranch came into use, being about equal distance between Salt Lake City and the station at Echo.)

Hardy's Station

With the end of the Pony Express in October 1861, and the start of the Butterfield Overland Mail coaches in July 1861, the station known as Hanks' Station was closed and a new stage station, known as Hardy's Station, was situated about 1-1/2 mile along Parley's Creek, above its confluence with Mountain Dell Creek, on the route from Kimball's Station at the north end of Parley's Park, to Salt Lake City by way of Parley's Canyon. References to Hardy's Station began showing in online newspapers in August 1863. The references all show Hardy's Station as being in Parley's Canyon. By the mid 1880s, after the mail and passenger coaches had been replaced by the railroad, Hardy's Station, at Mountain Dell and just seven miles above the mouth of Parley's Canyon, was advertised as a destination to escape the summer heat of the city.

Telegraph Line Completed, 1861

April 13, 1861
"Messrs. Wade and Creighton have left by steamer for the Eastern States, after having perfected arrangements on this side for the early completion of the line to Salt Lake. The arrangements are such that all California Telegraph Companies are merged in one, and to build to Salt Lake, Eastern companies to meet them at that point." (Salt Lake City Mountaineer, April 13, 1861)

October 18, 1861 - The Pacific Telegraph Company completed the telegraph between St. Joseph, Nebraska, and Salt Lake City. On the same day Brigham Young sent the first message to J. H. Wade, who was the president of that company at the time, assuring him that Utah was for the Union. On the same day the acting governor of Utah sent a message to President Abraham Lincoln, congratulating the President on the completion of the line to Salt Lake City, and the President replied, "The completion of the telegraph to Salt Lake City is auspicious of the stability and Union of the Republic. The government reciprocates your congratulations."

October 24, 1861 - The Overland Telegraph Company completed the telegraph line between Sacramento and Salt Lake City. The two lines met at Salt Lake City, creating the first transcontinental telegraph line.

(Read more about the first telegraph in Utah.)

With the completion of the telegraph the Pony Express stopped operating and the arrangement of the mail coach service changed almost immediately due to corporate failure. In 1862 the Russell, Majors and Waddell company, the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company operating the Eastern Division, went deeply into debt. Ben Holladay, the so-called stagecoach tycoon foreclosed on his massive loans to the Russell, Majors and Waddell company in March 1862, buying the Eastern Division at foreclosure. He reorganized it as the Overland Stage Line.

(Although the overland telegraph was completed in October 1861, the telegraph, like the Pony Express, it was a premium high-cost way to send a letter. Newspapers were the major source for information, and could not be sent by telegraph, except for headlines. The regular U.S. mail continued moving by mail coach.)

Holladay's Overland Mail & Express, 1862

Ben Holladay bought out Russell, Majors, and Waddell's Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company at a public foreclosure sale on March 21, 1862. Holladay had previously loaned substantial sums of money to William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell to keep their struggling company afloat.

When the Russell, Majors, and Waddell company was forced into bankruptcy due to increasing debt and the loss of its U. S. Mail subsidy following the completion of the transcontinental telegraph, Holladay submitted the winning bid of $100,000 to acquire the company's assets, routes, equipment, and livestock. Holladay reorganized the company as the Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company, and expanded and modernized the stage line.

(Read the book "Ben Holladay, Stagecoach King" at the HathiTrust. Published in 1940)

(Read more about Ben Holladay at Utah History To Go)

The disruption of Butterfield's Overland Mail along the Southern Route during the Civil War presented a major business opportunity. In March 1862, Ben Holladay secured control of the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company, acquiring 1,200 miles of stage lines. After winning the U.S. Post Office contract for mail service to Salt Lake City, Utah, he established the Overland Stage Route along the Overland Trail.

March 27, 1862
"The Overland Stages. — A telegram from Kansas states that Ben Holladay has purchased the interest of the California Mail Company and Pony Express Company in the stage line from that place to Denver and Salt Lake cities." (Sacramento Bee, March 27, 1862)

April 30, 1862
"The Overland Mail Troubles. - St. Louis, April 28. — A gentleman, connected with military telegraphs from Omaha, informs the Republican that the recent trouble with the Overland mail company is not occasioned by Indians but by companies of employees, who, not having been paid their wages for many months, became disgusted with this state of things and seized the stock and other available property, belonging to the company and fled to the new gold fields in British Columbia and Oregon. The Indians along the route are represented to be peaceably disposed, and as having not interfered in the least with the line." (Marysville Appeal Democrat, April 30, 1862)

May 2, 1862
"The Overland Mail. — We received a private dispatch from our St. Louis correspondent, who states that Senator Latham informed him that Mr. Ben. Holladay will go on the Overland route east of Salt Lake immediately, with the assistance of Federal troops, to restore communication within three weeks." (Daily Alta California, May 2, 1862)

May 10, 1862
"Overland Line. — Four companies of soldiers have been taken out on the overland stage line and scattered along the scene of the late difficulties beyond Fort Laramie, and the probability is that the route will be again opened within a couple of weeks. Two hundred and fifty mules were stolen. Ben Holladay, Esq., of New York, the proprietor of the line, is in our city at present, making all needed arrangements for securing connection with California. This route is of too much importance to the country to be allowed to remain closed for a single day." (Freedom's Champion [Atchison, Kansas], May 10, 1862)

May 29, 1862
"Overland Mail Matters. — The Overland Mail, conveyed from Placerville to St. Joseph's, Mo., is carried by two separate companies, although the service is done under the general title of 'Overland Mail Company.' The conveyance of the mail from Salt Lake eastward is done by the California Overland Company and Pike's Peak Express Company, a remnant of the workings of Russell, Major & Co., of Pony Express fame, with Mr. Ben Holladay. It is with the service east of Salt Lake that the recent Indian troubles occurred, and not with that on the western end of the line, from Salt Lake to Placerville. It is believed by those who have recently traveled over the route, that the troubles with the Indians east of Salt Lake owe their origin to local influence and hatred. One of the division superintendents, an able and efficient officer, is the main cause, growing out of the fact that a feud has for some time existed between him and a number of French or Canadian traders, which has been marked with blood in the hanging of several. It is believed that the relatives of the men killed have instigated the present troubles, and a peaceable solution of the difficulty can be arrived at by transferring the obnoxious superintendent to another division, and steps have been taken to effect this movement. Recently, two discoveries of missing mail matter have been made. A letter mail was opened and the contents scattered, but not destroyed, by the Indians; the letters have been duly gathered together, and it is hoped that none are lost. A large mail was also found 'cached' or buried by the Indians, the contents of which may not have fared so well, as the bags are mouldy, and fears are entertained that the contents have become injured. Both these recovered mails are 'en route' for Placerville, and a few days will determine their cases. The company west of Salt Lake have taken effectual steps to preserve their line, and they are now making regular trips. A few days, not over a month at best, it is to be hoped, will be necessary to place the whole line east in effective working order." (Daily Alta California, May 29, 1862)

(Throughout May and June 1862, there were complaints in the Salt Lake City newspapers that the mail was not moving either east or west, with most concern being given to mail service between Salt Lake City and California. There were suspicions that the delays were not due to Indian troubles, as was being widely reported in the East and in California, but due to profiteering white men stealing government supplies at the various stations and selling them on a black market, then demanding that the Army be sent from the East and from California to "protect the mails" and re-stock the stations. There were reports of wagon loads of supplies showing up at the mining camps, labeled as being government-owned materials. Regardless of who was preying on the stations, whether Indians or bandits, the mail coaches were being held back for the safety of employees and passengers. There was one report that on June 25th, a large volume of mail arrived at Salt Lake City from the East - mail that had been missing for months.)

June 17, 1862
"Overland Stage Line. Notice is hereby given to the public and residents along the Overland Stage Line, that hereafter no contract will be valid, and nothing will be paid on any contract made by any Division Agent, or any other employee of the line, unless they have written authority from Ben Holladay, Esq., proprietor of the line, to make such contract. - By order of the Proprietor, Isaac E. Eaton. Supt. O. S. Line. Salt Lake City, U. T., June 17, 1862." (Deseret News, July 16, 1862)

(Beginning with advertisements on June 17, 1862, the formal name of the company was shown as "Overland Stage Line.")

June 20, 1862
"Great Salt Lake City. Friday June 20, 1862. - The first mail from the East since the grand stoppage, excepting those bags brought by Col. Burton, was distributed on Sunday [June 15], another again on Wednesday [June 18], and a third today." "Mr. Ben Holladay, the proprietor of the Overland Mail Company, and Mr. Easton, Superintendent of the line, arrived from the East last week. Mr. Holladay is endeavoring to put the line in satisfactory running condition, which is scarcely the case yet." "The telegraph has not spoken for nearly a fortnight, and this, combined with our lame mails, leaves us entirely behind the age in regard to the bearings of the great issue at stake on the east side of the Rocky Mountains [the Civil War]." Mr. Eaton was returning to the East 'yesterday' [June 19]. (New York Times, July 16, 1862; the date, being almost a month later, suggests that the mail or the telegraph line, or both, was again in operation.)

June 25, 1862
Mail from the East arrived in San Francisco, but it was two months old. The news paper printed what it deemed most important, that being news of the war. (Daily Alta California, June 25, 1862)

July 18, 1862
A large troop of 1,000 to 2,000 military personnel had been dispatched along the Overland Mail route between St. Louis and Salt Lake City, with uninhibited authority to kill, wound, or scare away any Indian tribes or *highwaymen* who dare renew their depredations. There was 6,000 emigrant wagons en route along the trail across the plains on the Laramie route alone, each with four men on board to protect them. (Marysville Appeal Democrat, July 18, 1862)

July 23, 1862
From the Deseret News, July 23, 1862.

July 27, 1862
From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 30, 1862.

(The new route was first used on July 19, 1862. -- Daily Alta California, October 6, 1862)

(This new route was known by many as the "Cherokee Trail," and today as the "Overland Trail".)

(Read more about the "Overland Trail" in Wyoming, at WyoHistory.org) (includes a map)

(Tracing the new route on modern maps, the route was along the South Platte river from Julesburg to Greeley, along the Cache la Poudre river and over the divide to Laramie, to Rawlins by way of Medicine Bow and Hanna, to Green River, to Granger meeting the old route on the Black's Fork river, then to Fort Bridger. West of Laramie, this was basically the same route followed by Union Pacific five years later, in 1867-1868.)

September 2, 1862
From the Daily Alta California, September 2, 1862.

September 3, 1862
"Fast Traveling. - Fred. Cook, Esq , assistant treasurer of the Overland Mail Company, left here for California, on Thursday the 21st, at eight a.m. and reached Carson on the Sunday following [August 24], at two a.m., making the entire distance between the cities of Salt Lake and Carson in three days and three quarters. Ben Holladay, Esq., the proprietor of the Eastern division of the mail line, started from Carson for this place some hours later than Mr. Cook, and was four days and two hours 'en route'. Mr. Cook had a regular change of coaches, but Mr. Holladay traveled the entire distance in the time specified in his own private carriage. Secretary Fuller accompanied Mr. Cook west, and Captain Whitney, a gentleman who was shipwrecked with Mr. Holladay, at the recent destruction of the Golden Gate, accompanied Mr. H. to the east." (Deseret News, September 3, 1862)

September 3, 1862
"Atchison, Kansas, Sept. 3. — Ben. Holladay and J. Whitney, Jr., arrived to-day. Their time from Carson Valley to this place is reported to be 11 days and 1 hour, including 13 hours' detention this side of Salt Lake. They represent the new mail route over the Cherokee trail as excellent. No Indians were seen. Mr. Holladay states that after the 10th inst. [September 10], the Overland stages will pass daily through Denver." (Daily Alta California, September 8, 1862)

(Holladay continued on to New York City, reaching that city 16 days after leaving San Francisco. "He had relays of animals at every station." -- Daily Alta California, September 16, 1862)

September 3, 1862
A summary of an editorial in the Deseret News, September 3, 1862.

September 12, 1862
The first coach of the Overland Stage Company arrived in Denver, after diverting south from the mouth of the Cache la Poudre river (Greeley), south to Denver. For the continuation of the route to Salt Lake City, the line from Denver went northward to LaPorte (Fort Collins), rejoining the original route to Laramie. ("The Overland Mail, 1849-1869" by Le Roy R. Hafen, 1926, page 232)

October 6, 1862
"The Atchison agents of the Overland Mail route are much amused by the impression prevailing through the States that the Overland route is a humbug, and that it has suspended present operations. A letter from one of them says: "Since the 19th of July, we have been running over the route known as the Cherokee trail, one which is entirely destitute of Indians; and if the Lord will only continue that destitution for an unlimited period, we hope the stages will continue to make as good time as at present. You see I have ceased to call on the Government for protection. Ben. Holladay came through in ten days and fourteen hours, running time; so that, so far as speed is concerned, a railroad is nearly superfluous." My Atchison friend backs up his assertions by sending papers, of only twenty days old, from San Francisco. It strikes me, the people of California have just ground of complaint when they find their letters sent by ocean steamers, and an express bag going through every day." (Daily Alta California, October 6, 1862)

(The Post Office Department had diverted all mail for California from points east of Missouri to travel by ocean from New York City, based on a telegram Holladay sent from Salt Lake City in early June, warning of rumors of Indian trouble in Minnesota and areas south of there. Being transmitted by telegraph, Holladay's report was read by many persons and expanded to become fact. The stories in the East were found to be based solely on what was called, a "misapprehension." The above news item was part of several complaints of the diversion being based on anything but the facts. Regular mail service from the East to Missouri, then on to California by coach was resumed as soon as Holladay learned of the mistake and personally assured the Postmaster-General that his report in early June was simply rumor. -- Daily Alta California, October 5, 1862; October 16, 1862)

(Denver was to begin receiving daily mail service from Holladay's Overland Mail company coaches.-- Deseret News, October 8, 1862)

U.S. Army Returns To Utah, 1862

On the morning of October 20, 1862, the Third California Volunteers arrived in Salt Lake City, under the command of Colonel P. E. Connor. They were stationed in Salt Lake City to monitor the activity of the Mormons, and to "protect" the Overland Mail. They also set about rounding up and punishing as many Indians as could be justified.

(Read more about P. E. Connor and the California Volunteers)

New Mail Contract, 1864

July 1, 1864
As mandated in the Act of 1861, the overland mail contract expired on July 1, 1864. A new mail contract was awarded to Ben Holladay and his Overland Mail & Express Co. continued to provide the service.

So while Butterfield's Overland Mail Company held the mail contract, and moved its operation north from the Southern Route to the Central Route, the operations on the ground were taken over by the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, which itself was purchased and controlled by Ben Holladay and eventually consolidated under Wells, Fargo & Co. control, ownership and operation.

(Exactly when the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, with its newly established Eastern and Western divisions, was fully absorbed by Holladay's own Overland Mail & Express Company, is still being researched.)

• Holladay Overland Mail & Express Co. (1862–1866) (Missouri River to Salt Lake City) (Eastern Division) — Shifted the route from South Pass down through northern Colorado by way of Julesburg to Denver, then into and across southern Wyoming via the Overland Trail.
• Holladay Overland Mail & Express Co./Wells, Fargo & Co. (1862–1869) (Salt Lake City to Sacramento) (Western Division) — Continued to use the Central Route across central Nevada by way of Austin and Carson City and over the Sierra Nevada mountains.
• Wells, Fargo & Company (1866–1869) (Missouri River to Salt Lake City) (Eastern Division) — Bought Ben Holladay's interest in the stage line and mail contract.

1862-1866
Holladay aggressively expanded and upgraded the Overland Trail by building new stations, deploying a fleet of newly-built Concord stages, and streamlining numerous routes. After changing the company name to the Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company, and by 1866 his network stretched from Atchison, Kansas, to Denver, Colorado, north into Wyoming and on westward to Salt Lake City. At its peak, Holladay was the sole owner of roughly 20,000 vehicles, employed over 15,000 workers, and brought in up to $60,000 a month in passenger revenue. A one-way fare from Atchison to Salt Lake City cost $350. Over the five year period he held the mail contract, the Post Office paid him nearly $2 million.

April 23, 1866
A bulletin from Ben Holladay notified all concerned that the "Overland Mail Company" had purchased and consolidated the entire property of the "Overland Stage Line" and the "Overland Despatch Company," comprising all of the Overland Stage Lines west of the Missouri River. (Deseret News, May 24, 1966, bulletin signed by Ben Holladay, president)

(The "Overland Mail Line" name dated back to to when it was formed in September 1857 as a joint venture by the largest express companies, and operated by John Butterfield along the Southern Route. The "Overland Despatch Company" name dated back to May 1865, as a freight company being operated by John Butterfield between Atchison and Denver, by way to the Smoky Hill Route across Kansas.)

Wells, Fargo & Co., 1866

Recognizing that the transcontinental railroad would soon make stagecoaches obsolete, Holladay timed his exit. On November 1, 1866, he sold his entire operation—including routes, equipment, and contracts—to Wells, Fargo & Co. for $1.5 million in cash and $300,000 in Wells Fargo stock.

"But the handwriting was on the wall, with the railroad building slowly westward as well as eastward from the Coast. Wells Fargo was pressing Holladay, and with an uneasy eye on the progress of the advancing steel rails "Old Ben" sold out. Wells Fargo paid him $1,500,000 in cash, $300,000 in company stock, and gave him a seat on the board of directors. In May 1869 laying of track for the transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit and the Overland stage to California was out of business, after a little more than a decade of service." (Nick Eggenhofer, "Wagons, Mules and Men," page 160)

Wells, Fargo & Co. had already taken control of the stage lines in California and Nevada, and in November 1866 consolidated Holladay's Overland Mail & Express Co. with the Pioneer Stage Line in California, into a single company, controlling the Central Overland Route until the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.

Under Wells Fargo ownership the Overland stagecoach mail service continued for another two and a half years. The Overland mail and passenger stage era came to an end when the Union Pacific and Central Pacific tracks met at Promontory Summit, Utah, in May 1869. Overland letter mail shifted entirely from stagecoaches to rail cars, ending the era of the overland mail coach routes, although numerous and many mail and passenger coach branchlines remained in operation for many, many years.

Maps

National Park Service Interactive Historic Trails Map -- Map shows the routes of all the trails mentioned on this page (except Parley Pratt's Golden Pass Route from Echo to Salt Lake City by way of Three Mile and Silver Creek canyons).

Sources

(In addition to newspapers of the period, most of which are available online, the following were useful sources.)

(Archive.org - "The Overland Stage to California." by Frank Root and William Connelley, 1901)

(Archive.org - "The Overland Mail, 1849–1869" by LeRoy R. Hafen; digitized from the original 1926 edition)

(Archive.org - "Ben Holladay, The Stagecoach King" by J. V. Frederick, 1940)

(Archive.org - "Wagons, Mules and Men," by Nick Eggenhofer, 1961) (Well researched, well written and highly entertaining. Recommended for anyone with an interest in wagons or any vehicle pulled by mules, horses, or oxen. It covers the subjects very well.)

(Archive.org - "War Drums and Wagon Wheels" by Raymond Settle and Mary Lund Settle, 1966)

(HathiTrust.org - The First Overland Mail, Butterfield Trail, St. Louis to San Francisco, 1858-1861, by Walter B. Lang, 1940)

(HathiTrust.org - The Butterfield Overland Mail, 1857-1869, by Roscoe P. Conkling and Margaret B. Conkling, 1947, Volume 1)

(HathiTrust.org - The Butterfield Overland Mail, 1857-1869, by Roscoe P. Conkling and Margaret B. Conkling, 1947, Volume 2)

(Archive.org - Howard R. Egan, "Pioneering the West, 1846–1878," 1916)

Richard E. Fike and John W. Headley, The Pony Express Stations of Utah in Historical Perspective, Bureau of Land Management, 1979 (PDF; 125 pages; 32.4MB)

(Archive.org - "Utah, a guide to the state," Works Progress Administration, Writers Program, 1941)

More Information

Overland Mail to California in the 1850s -- Mirrored from the U. S. Postal Service's own history of moving mail in the 1850s; includes maps.

Anthony Godfrey, "Pony Express National Historic Trail," 1992 at Google Books (PDF; 298 pages; 8MB)

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