Butterfield Stage - statistics and account

The Butterfield Stage ran through Arizona in the years between 1858 and 1861, with the help of a $600,000 annual grant from the US Government. The route started in St. Louis and ended in San Fransisco, with stages running twice a week, a distance of 2800 miles, covering the route in 24 days. In three years, the stage was late only three times.

Butterfield employed 2000 people. They had 250 coaches, including the lightweight "Celerity" model that ran better in the desert. Additionally, they had several hundred freight wagons. Butterfield had 1800 horses and mules.

In the three years, Apaches killed 22 drivers.

I don't know what the overall fare was, but on a local coach between Tucson and Tombstone - the Tombstone Express - the fare was $10 for only 100 miles.


Sample distances in eastern AZ:

Steins Pass to San Simon 13 miles
SS to Apache Pass 18
AP to Ewells 15
E to Dragoon Springs 21
DS to San Pedro 25
SP to Cienega 25
C to Tucson 30

Notes: the first three (short distance) involve hills/mountains. The essential fact is that the stations could be only in the scarce places that had water for the stock.

From Pumpelly:

“Having secured the right to a back seat in the overland coach as far as Tucson, I looked forward, with comparatively little dread, to 16 days and nights of continuous travel. But the arrival of a woman and her brother, dashed, at the very early onset, my hopes of an easy journey, and obliged me to take the front seat, where with my back to the horses, I began to foresee the coming discomfort. The coach was fitted with three seats, and these were occupied by nine passengers. As the occupants of the front and middle seats faced each other, it was necessary for these six people to interlock their knees… An unusually heavy mail in the boot, by weighing down the rear, kept in those of us who were on the front seat constantly bent forward… rendering rest at all times out of the question.”
“The fatigue of uninterrupted traveling by day and night in a crowded coach, and in the most uncomfortable positions, was beginning to tell seriously upon all the passengers, and was producing a condition bordering on insanity. This was increased by the constant anxiety caused by the danger from Comanches.”
“We frequently traveled at great speed with only half broken teams. At several stations, six wild horses were hitched blindfolded into their places. When everything was ready, the blinds were removed at a signal from the driver, and the animals started off at a runaway speed, which they kept up without slackening till the next station, generally 12 miles distant. In these cases the driver had no further control over his animals then the ability to guide them; to stop, or even to check them, was entirely beyond his power.”