Site of J.D. Earnest Ranch Stage Stand
Eldorado, Schleicher County, Texas
Marker Inscription
During the ownership of rancher J. D. Earnest, this site was used as a rest stop on the stage line between San Angelo and Sonora. Owned and managed by Theodore Jackson Savell (1872-1954), the operation began providing mail and passenger service to the area in 1894. Each weekday two stages pulled by four horses made the 75-mile run. On rare rainy occasions the passengers helped push the stagecoach up muddy hills. The Savell line remained in operation until 1909, when mail was first delivered to the county by automobile. (1980)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the ranch country of West Texas, the run between San Angelo and Sonora depended on relays like this one, where four-horse coaches paused before pushing on across dry, rolling range. Beginning in 1894, Theodore Jackson Savell's line carried mail and passengers on a demanding 75-mile daily circuit, and when spring rains turned the road to mud, travelers climbed out to shove the coach uphill. The service lasted until 1909, when the automobile finally delivered the county's mail.
Why it matters
Stage stands like this were the connective tissue of the rural West, knitting isolated ranch communities into the wider nation before the car and the railroad remade travel.
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Related people
- · J.D. Earnest
- · Theodore Jackson Savell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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