Palm Spring Station is a former Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach station located at Palm Spring in San Diego County, California. This station built in 1858 by division agent, Warren F. Hall is commemorated by California State Historical Marker Number 639 Palm Spring. [1]
Palm Spring, a desert oasis amidst a mesquite thicket and a few palms close to Carrizo Creek, was a popular camping spot on the Southern Emigrant Trail during the California Gold Rush. It became a water stop for the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line in 1857 and a stage station site for the Butterfield Overland Mail Company in 1858. Located 9 miles east of Vallecito stage station and 9 miles west of Carrizo Creek Station, it was a relay or swing station that provided water and a hostler who changed out tired coach teams with 5 horses kept there for the purpose. [2]
Palm Spring Station continued in this role until the Butterfield line shut down in the spring of 1861. It was used by the Union Army for water for its troops and their animals forage on the road to Fort Yuma during the American Civil War. It does not seem to have been revived as a stage station, by later stage lines to Fort Yuma during their time of operation between 1867 and 1877 as most of the other Butterfield stations were, but was still a watering place.
During March and April 2001, a surface survey and remote sensing and archaeological investigations including limited shovel test pit explorations were completed. No remains of the stage station were located at the Palm Spring site. At the current time, it is unknown if or where the remains of Palm Spring Stage Station still exist. [3] The station may have been only a tent or a brush shelter and a small corral that has left little trace after over 150 years.
Butterfield Overland Mail was a stagecoach service in the United States operating from 1858 to 1861. It carried passengers and U.S. Mail from two eastern termini, Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California. The routes from each eastern terminus met at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then continued through Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico, and California ending in San Francisco. On March 3, 1857, Congress authorized the U.S. postmaster general, at that time Aaron V. Brown, to contract for delivery of the U.S. mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. Prior to this, U.S. Mail bound for the Far West had been delivered by the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line since June 1857.
Warner's Ranch, near Warner Springs, California, was notable as a way station for large numbers of emigrants on the Southern Emigrant Trail from 1849 to 1861, as it was a stop on both the Gila River Trail and the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line (1859-1861). It was also operated as a pioneering cattle ranch.
Oak Grove Butterfield Stage Station is located in the western foothills of the Laguna Mountains, in northern San Diego County, California. It is located on State Route 79, 13 miles (21 km) northwest of Warner Springs and Warner's Ranch. The station was built on the site of Camp Wright, an 1860s Civil War outpost.
Sackett's Wells is a former settlement in Imperial County, California. It was located 3 miles (4.8 km) west northwest of Plaster City, in or near Coyote Wash.
Rancho Valle de San Felipe was a 9,972-acre (40.36 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day San Diego County, California given in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico to Felipe Castillo. The grant was located in the San Felipe Valley in the Laguna Mountains east of present-day Julian.
The Butterfield Overland Mail in California was created by the United States Congress on March 3, 1857, and operated until June 30, 1861. Subsequently, other stage lines operated along the Butterfield Overland Mail in route in Alta California until the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in Yuma, Arizona in 1877.
Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, the Kearny Trail, Southern Trail and the Butterfield Stage Trail, was a major land route for immigration into California from the eastern United States that followed the Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico during the California Gold Rush. Unlike the more northern routes, pioneer wagons could travel year round, mountain passes not being blocked by snows; however, it had the disadvantage of summer heat and lack of water in the desert regions through which it passed in New Mexico Territory and the Colorado Desert of California. Subsequently, it was a route of travel and commerce between the eastern United States and California. Many herds of cattle and sheep were driven along this route and it was followed by the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line in 1857–1858 and then the Butterfield Overland Mail from 1858 to 1861.
The San Antonio–San Diego Mail Line, also known as the Jackass Mail, was the earliest overland stagecoach and mail operation from the Eastern United States to California in operation between 1857 and 1861. It was created, organized and financed by James E. Birch the head of the California Stage Company. Birch was awarded the first contract for overland service on the "Southern Route", designated Route 8076. This contract required a semi-monthly service in four-horse coaches, scheduled to leave San Antonio and San Diego on the ninth and the 24th of each month, with 30 days allowed for each trip.
In Texas, the Butterfield Overland Mail service created by Congress on March 3, 1857, was operated until March 30, 1861.
The Butterfield Overland Mail was a transport and mail delivery system that employed stagecoaches that travelled on a specific route between St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco, California and which passed through the New Mexico Territory. It was created by the United States Congress on March 3, 1857, and operated until March 30, 1861. The route that was operated extended from where the ferry across the Colorado River to Fort Yuma Station, California was located, through New Mexico Territory via Tucson to the Rio Grande and Mesilla, New Mexico then south to Franklin, Texas, midpoint on the route. The New Mexico Territory mail route was divided into two divisions each under a superintendent. Tucson was the headquarters of the 3rd Division of the Butterfield Overland Mail Company. Franklin Station in the town of Franklin,, was the headquarters of the 4th Division.
San Felipe Valley is an inland valley of the Peninsular Ranges, located in eastern San Diego County, California. Most of the valley is protected within the San Felipe Valley Wildlife Area.
The Butterfield Overland Mail route in Baja California was created as a result of an act by the United States Congress on March 3, 1857, and operated until June 30, 1861 as part of the Second Division of the route. Subsequently other stage lines operated along the route until the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in Yuma, Arizona.
Vallecito, in San Diego County, California, is an oasis of cienegas and salt grass along Vallecito Creek and a former Kumeyaay settlement on the edge of the Colorado Desert in the Vallecito Valley. Its Spanish name is translated as "little valley". Vallecito was located at the apex of the gap in the Carrizo Badlands created by Carrizo Creek and its wash in its lower reach, to which Vallecito Creek is a tributary. The springs of Vallecito, like many in the vicinity, are a product of the faults that run along the base of the Peninsular Ranges to the west.
Palm Spring is a spring in Mesquite Oasis, a desert oasis amidst a mesquite thicket and a few palms, close to Carrizo Creek, within the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, California.
Carrizo Creek Station, a former stage station of the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and Butterfield Overland Mail, located in Imperial County, California just east of the San Diego County line. It lies within the boundaries of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park just west of the Carrizo Impact Area. Its site is located along the bank of Carrizo Creek.
The Carrizo Creek and Carrizo Wash in California are a stream and an arroyo that the stream flows into, in San Diego County, California, and Imperial County, California.
Arizona City or Arizona is the name of the original settlement at the Yuma Crossing, in what is now Yuma, Arizona.
Antelope Peak Station, a later Butterfield Overland Mail station located 15.14 miles east of Mission Camp, at the foot of Antelope Peak. It replaced Filibusters Camp Station, 6 miles to the west. The Overland Mail Company replaced Filibusters Camp, because Antelope Peak Station had a better water supply. Its location is thought to be 32°42′47″N114°00′54″W. The station was built by John Kilbride in 1857 but did not appear on the stagecoach itinerary until 1859.
The Temescal Butterfield stage station is the site where the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach stopped to deliver mail and get fresh horses in what is now Riverside County, California. The Temescal Butterfield stage station was designated a California Historic Landmark (No.188) on June 20, 1935. The site of the Temescal Butterfield stage station is currently near the City of Corona along Temescal Canyon Road. The first stagecoach with mail and passengers departed Tipton, Missouri on September 15, 1858. The stagecoach stopped at the Temescal Butterfield stage station and arrived at the Butterfield Overland Mail Company Los Angeles Building on October 7, 1858. The Butterfield Overland Mail Company closed in 1861.
Canebrake Canyon is a valley at an elevation of 1145 feet in the deserts of Southern California. Canebrake Canyon is found southwest of Mesquite Oasis, northeast of the Tierra Blanca Mountains. An open wilderness of San Diego County, California, it is reached nearby from popular Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and is a remote hiking destination.