El Buscaderos-Cowboy Action Shooting-Feature

No cowboy movie would be complete without two essential elements, the Colt revolver and the stagecoach. Both of these came to the West from New England and we all know who did the revolver. The introduction of the stagecoach was largely accredited to John Butterfield. Born in Berne, New York, he was known in his youth as one of the best drivers in Albany. Butterfield also directly contributed to style and fashion. For years stores sold long yellow linen dusters, high leather boots and the flat-crowned "wide-awake" hats that this dark-haired, broad-shouldered man made popular.

After the Mexican War of 1848, pressure came from both ends of the country for transcontinental communications. The safest route was by water and contracts were awarded for a semi-monthly between New York and San Francisco. Letters were carried to Panama by The United States Steamship Company, transported across the isthmus loaded on ships from the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and delivered in San Francisco. The entire trip took 30 days and the price could vary from twelve to eighty cents per ounce. With the Gold Rush and California’s statehood, the demand increased and in 1856, 75,000 Californians petitioned Congress for daily mail coming overland. Congress authorized the Post Office Department to call for bids for a semi-weekly mail service from "a point on the Mississippi to San Francisco" Sectionalism appeared when the Southerners wanted a southern route and the Northerners wanted it in the north. Congress dodged this debate by stating the route to be "selected by the contractor". Postmaster Aaron Brown was a southerner. John Butterfield, William Fargo and other New York express men proposed a southern a southern route and won the contract, promising the mail to be delivered in twenty-five days or less.

After the awarding of the contract, the Butterfield Company had an overwhelming task. The route had to be surveyed, roads built and improved, grades leveled, ferries and bridges constructed, wells dug, stations built. Butterfield was personally involved in much of this. 1800 horses and mules were purchased, orders for 250 regular coaches and special mail wagons, water wagons, harness sets and other accessories placed. Over 1,000 employees were hired and forage and food placed at each station. Preliminary expense were more than a million dollars before the first coach could roll. While they also carried passengers, the stage lines, even at full capacity, could not meet expenses for the 2800-mile route without the $600,000 Post Office contract. On September 16, 1857 the contract was signed and exactly one year later stages left from Tipton, Missouri and San Francisco. Operating continuously until the southern route was abandoned during the Civil War, Butterfield stages completed runs within the required twenty-five days. A strict rule of the stockholders prohibited shipments of gold and silver thus eliminating the problem of hold-ups.

Two types of coaches were used, the Concord coach made at Concord, New Hampshire and the "celerity" made at Troy, New York. These were full-bodied coaches weighing 3,000 pounds and had a capacity of six to nine passengers inside and almost unlimited number outside on top. The Concords were used at each end of the trip while the specially build celerity was used on the rougher sections of the route. These were like the Concord in appearance, but had smaller wheels and a top frame covered in heavy duck. They also had three seats inside that could be converted in to bed. Leather and duck curtains protected the passengers from the weather. The body was reinforced with iron and suspended on leather straps. The cab would rock back and forth on the straps that acted as shock absorbers.
In all, almost 200 stations were erected along the route set anywhere from nine to sixty miles apart. Four or five well-armed men tended to each station but in Indian country there could be as many as eight. The stages were pulled by four to six horses and rolled night a day except for stops to change teams and meals. Speeds varied from four to twelve miles per hour and in 24 hours the stage would travel about 120 miles. Except for meal stops twice a day the stage stayed in the station only ten minutes to change teams and drop off or pick up mails sacks.

After Butterfield stepped down as president of the Overland Stage Company in 1860, the morale and discipline of employees declined. On March 12,1861 Congress ordered the route permanently discontinued and service transferred to the central section of the country by way of South Pass and Salt Lake City. A year later Ben Hollladay took the company and sold it in 1866 to Wells,Fargo and company. It continued operation from the Missouri River to Sacramento until completion of the Union Pacific Railroad. Eventually even the local stages disappeared from the western scene.