stagecoach, which left Missouri on About two hundred miles of the old September 16, 1858, arrived in mail road cross southeast Oklahoma and, San Francisco one hour shy of twenty- thanks to the efforts of twentieth-century four days’ time, a breathtaking historians, the route is well understood. performance for long-distance overland At 昀椀rst it followed the Fort Smith-Boggy travel in the day, and shorter times Depot Road, using wagon trails which had were often recorded. In the spring of existed since the late 1830s as a result of 1861, with the onset of the Civil War, the Choctaw and Chickasaw removals and the Overland Mail service was moved U.S. Army movements. Oklahoma historian to a more northern route. Muriel Wright extolled the route, writing: In spite of its short life, the The good roadbeds in the valleys, name “Butter昀椀eld” acquired cultural shallow crossings on the larger signi昀椀cance over the years as an icon streams and easy passes through of the Old West. In 2023, it was named the outlying ridges of the San Bois a National Historic Trail, a federal and the Winding Stair Mountains lay designation which identi昀椀es and along this same line, which made it protects pathways of historic importance the best and the most direct route for public use and enjoyment. The for travel from Fort Smith across the Butter昀椀eld Trail joins the Santa Fe Choctaw and the Chickasaw country Trail and the Trail of Tears as the to Red River and points southwest. So third National Historic Trail within it was a natural trailway undoubtedly Oklahoma’s borders. followed by the native Indian tribes and by visitors to the country lying between the Arkansas and Canadian and the Red rivers long before the 昀椀rst permanent settlements were established in that region. Near Atoka, the Fort Smith-Boggy Depot Road converged with the Texas Road, which began as a trail leading from St. Louis to trading posts among the Osage people in southwest Missouri and northeast Oklahoma. It became a well traveled road by the 1820s, continuing southwesterly into Texas and serving as The Centennial Commi琀琀ee of the Oklahoma the avenue by which thousands of home Historical Society placed historic markers at all of seekers traveled to Texas before the the Oklahoma Bu琀琀er昀椀eld stations in 1958. coming of the railroad in 1872. 22