As the US population expanded westward due to the gold rush and land grabs, the need for doctors and shipment of essential goods, rose significantly.  On March 3, 1857, a bill was passed in Congress to authorize the Postmaster General to select a contractor and to create a route to deliver mail and passengers to meet the expansion westward.  The contract was awarded to John Butterfield of Albany, NY for $600,000 ($18.7 million in 2019) semi-weekly service.  The Butterfield Overland Mail Route was a passenger and mail stage service that ran in the US from 1858 to 1861.  It was the first transcontinental delivery service with two starting terminal points; St Louis, MO and Memphis, TN, which joined in Ft Smith, AR to complete the trek to San Francisco, CA in 25 days; then return the journey back east.  Up to that point, mail delivery to what we now refer to as the “west coast” was done by steamer ships, twice a month.  There were almost 200 major and minor stage stops and mail collection locations along the route, from Tipton, Missouri to San Francisco, California.  The stage stops were ten minutes long, meal stops were longer, but just long enough to change horses, discharge and pick up the mail.(1)  The stage averaged 120 miles per day.

Passenger fare was $200 ($6,258 in 2019) for westbound, $100 ($3,129 in 2019) for eastbound and ten cents per mile for way fare ($3.13 in 2019), either direction.  There was a limitation on baggage of 40 pounds and carrying of large amounts of valuables, to prevent hold-up attempts.  The postal-rate was ten cents for letters marked “via overland” or “per overland”.(1)