11/24/2015
Butterfield’s Overland Despatch was established quickly during the summer of 1865, as businessman David A. Butterfield tried to capitalize on the small window of opportunity to make big money carrying freight and passengers along the Smoky Hill Trail before the appearance of the railroad. The Indian difficulties along the stage line during last months of 1865 had cost David Butterfield a fortune in horses and mules, wagons, coaches and burned stations. Shippers and travelers shied away from the danger and began to turn to the longer route along the Platte River.
These troubles caught the attention of the celebrated businessman Ben Holladay, nicknamed “The Stagecoach King.” He owned 3,000 miles of stagecoach lines, as well as steamboat lines to Oregon, Panama, China and Japan. In March of 1866, Butterfield’s Overland Despatch was sold to Holladay; giving him control of nearly 5,000 miles of stage routes, 1500 horses, 700 hundred mules and 700 employees.
By October 1866, Ben Holladay found himself spread too thin financially. He was forced to begin negotiations with his arch rival Wells Fargo Company. The business deal ended with Wells Fargo gaining controlling stock of the Holladay company. The merger included Butterfield’s Overland Despatch, the Overland Mail Company, the United States Express Company, the American Express Company and the Pioneer Stage Company. This gave Wells Fargo an empire of all stage lines of any consequence west of the Missouri River.
All businessmen involved understood the short-lived nature of the stagecoach lines; the “iron horse” of the steam engine was making tracks toward the west and its more reliable and powerful mode of transportation. By November of 1868, the tracks would reach Pond City, but passenger service was delayed at Sheridan for the next year, while the US Government and the Railroad resolved permit, territory and legal issues.
As the Kansas Pacific worked its way west, the stagecoach line gradually diminished. On August 18, 1870, the final passenger stage of Butterfield’s Overland Despatch drove into Denver, and the railroad became the new standard of the Smoky Hill Trail. Although the railroad brought efficiency and even luxury to the way West, the romance and danger of stagecoach travel would be celebrated throughout American history.
