Valley Creek Station
Bradshaw, Taylor County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(site located 2 mi. northwest) Near this site, an important link in the frontier transportation system was an area landmark. The Butterfield Overland Mail maintained a stage stop at the falls and crossing of Valley Creek beginning in 1858. The twice-weekly mail and passenger line stretched from San Francisco to St. Louis, crossing the southwest corner of Taylor County and passing six miles west of present Abilene. The path through Texas, known as the Oxbow Route, added about 600 miles to the 2,800 mile trip. The line moved out of Texas in March 1861, leaving this area sparsely settled. Ranchers later settled near Spring, Cottonwood and Valley creeks, and established the nearby community of Shep in the 1880s. (1968, 2007)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Beginning in 1858, the Butterfield Overland Mail kept a stage stop at the falls and crossing of Valley Creek, a vital link on the twice-weekly line running between San Francisco and St. Louis. The route's Texas leg, the Oxbow, added roughly 600 miles to the journey and passed just west of present-day Abilene. The line withdrew from Texas in March 1861, leaving the area sparsely settled until ranchers established the nearby community of Shep in the 1880s.
Why it matters
Stations like Valley Creek trace the fragile thread of overland travel that briefly bound the far West to the East before the Civil War severed it and railroads replaced it.
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Related events
- · Butterfield Overland Mail
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Chadbourne
Bronte vicinity, TX
The U.S. Army planted Fort Chadbourne on the West Texas frontier in October 1852 to shield settlers pressing into country still held by Comanche and other Plains peoples. It honored Lieutenant T. L. Chadbourne, killed at the Battle of Resaca de la Palma during the Mexican-American War. From 1858 to 1861 the post doubled as a key station on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, watering stagecoaches carrying passengers and mail toward California.
Route of the Southern Overland Mail Line
Bronte vicinity, TX
A mile southeast stood Fort Chadbourne, established in 1852, which from 1858 to 1861 served as a station on the Butterfield Overland Mail — the sprawling stage line that carried letters and passengers between St. Louis and San Francisco. For a few short years before the Civil War severed it, this remote West Texas outpost was a link in the first reliable overland connection binding the young nation's coasts.
Mountain Pass Station
Merkel, TX
For a few years before the Civil War, Mountain Pass served as a stage stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail — the first line to knit the east and west coasts together by mail and passenger coach across a still-wild West Texas. Coaches paused here from 1858 until secession snapped the route in 1861, and in the 1870s the site revived as a stop on a branch of the El Paso–San Antonio mail line.
Southern Overland Mail, 1858-1861
Robert Lee vicinity, TX
From 1858 to 1861, John Butterfield's Southern Overland Mail rolled past this spot, knitting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts together with the first combined passenger and mail line. Stagecoaches ran day and night across rough country, changing horses and mules at stations spaced miles apart, with crews and passengers armed against attack. The 2,700-mile journey took about 25 days — seven of them just crossing Texas — until the Civil War ended the service.