Butterfield Overland Stage Line
Decatur, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Through Decatur passed the Butterfield Overland mail line connecting St. Louis and San Francisco with semi-weekly stage and mail service, 1858-1861. The length of the route, 2,795 miles and the superior service maintained made this a pioneer enterprise of the first magnitude.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
From 1858 to 1861, the Butterfield Overland Mail rolled through Decatur on its 2,795-mile run linking St. Louis and San Francisco with semi-weekly stage and mail service. The route was one of the great logistical feats of its era, knitting the far-flung antebellum nation together across deserts and plains until the Civil War severed the southern line.
Why it matters
The Butterfield line was a pioneering transcontinental lifeline, proving overland mail possible years before the transcontinental railroad and putting frontier towns like Decatur on the national map.
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