Castle Peak
Merkel, Taylor County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Butterfield Overland Mail, the first public transportation facility spanning the area from the Mississippi to the Pacific with passenger and mail service, 1858-61, used the 2400-foot peak to the northeast as a beacon. The drivers and passengers viewed it for 30 to 40 miles. In that era it was called Abercrombie Peak, for Colonel J. J. Abercrombie of the U.S. Army, active in defense of this frontier. Waterman Ormsby, a newspaper reporter riding the first Butterfield Stage to pass this way, noted that the peak resembled a fortress. Later the height was renamed Castle Peak. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
From 1858 to 1861 the Butterfield Overland Mail carried the first through passenger and mail service linking the Mississippi to the Pacific, and its drivers steered by this 2,400-foot peak, visible for thirty to forty miles. Then called Abercrombie Peak for a U.S. Army colonel who defended the frontier, it struck the newspaperman Waterman Ormsby — riding the first westbound Butterfield stage — as resembling a fortress. The height was later renamed Castle Peak.
Why it matters
The Butterfield route was a lifeline of overland communication that helped bind the far-flung nation together in the years before the transcontinental railroad.
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Related people
- · Waterman Ormsby
- · J. J. Abercrombie
Related events
- · Butterfield Overland Mail
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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