The vehicles used by the Overland Mail company in Indian Territory and points west were celerity wagons, tailor made for rugged roads. Illustration courtesy Gerald T. Ahnert. of Choctaw Governor Tandy Walker, who was also the Butter昀椀eld station keeper. This historic structure survived until 1947 when it burned, at that time the oldest structure in Oklahoma. Today the spot is on private property and would be easy to miss, but on Spring Road a green sign for Roselawn Cemetery marks a turn-off, and a walk y the time the Overland Mail north along the street reveals a granite Breached the Indian Territory, it was marker and bronze plaque in a trace of riding on something other than a the stagecoach road. Looking southwest stage “coach.” In Arkansas, westbound from the marker, the depression in the mail and passengers transferred from earth is obvious. the familiar Concord coaches to “Celerity Other historic sites in the area invite wagons,” designed speci昀椀cally for the investigation. The Skullyville cemetery rough roads of the west. The wagon’s abides just west of the station, a place weight was about half that of a stagecoach of quiet antiquity where the graves and its lower center of gravity made it less of Tandy Walker and other Choctaw apt to tip over. The Celerity wagon was leaders are shaded by massive oaks. used on about seventy percent And, just a few miles north, the Spiro of the Butter昀椀eld Overland Mail route and Tandy Walker and Mounds Archeological Center is open for the entirety of the segment through other Choctaw leaders to the public, one of the nation’s most Indian Territory. are buried in the important American Indian sites and From Walker’s, the road continues picturesque Skullyville the only such prehistoric archaeological southwest to Trahern’s Station then, about cemetery near Spiro. site in Oklahoma. sixteen miles southwest, a real treasure 24