Page 116 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

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The Picacho location was dropped in December 1858 with the estab- lishment of the Rough and Ready relay station 11 miles beyond. Another station, Goodsight, was added soon thereafter, but Mason’s (formerly Slocum’s) ranch was not added until much later and
by another line.
The station at Cooke’s Spring was a “swing” sta-
tion. Swing stations were only to provide a change of teams for the coaches and were not intended to provide passenger services. Cooke’s Spring station (Figure 29) was located in the low pass about one- half mile southeast of the spring.95 Initially only a tent, the station was soon constructed of adobe and still later another structure was built closer to the spring by a postbellum stage company.
Butterfieldandhisemployeesworkedfeverishlyto stockpile hay, grain, and other supplies, along with food, at each of the stations, and arrangements had to be made for regular deliveries after the coaches
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began rolling
100 tons of hay and grain each year, and at some, water had to be hauled in. In parallel with setting up the stations and providing men to operate them, Butterfield also had to procure a large number of coaches. For the more settled areas at each end of the line, he selected the Concord, built by Abbot and Downing of Concord, New Hampshire, and the Troy, produced at Troy, New York, by Eaton, Gil- bert and Company.
For the rougher middle portion of the line he had a different type of vehicle designed, called the
98
Celerity wagon
than the Concord and a body similar to a regular stage. The top was a frame covered only with leather or heavy duck, and the windows and doors, made of the same material, could be rolled up in fair, warm weather. The three seats, each capable of holding three passengers, were constructed so that the backs could be let down and made into a single large
99
passenger bed at night.
weighed 3,000 pounds, had a capacity of about 4,000
00
pounds, and cost about $1,400.
To man the coaches and wagons, Butterfield
neededdrivers. Hehiredmanyformerteamsters, but others were from various backgrounds. These men saw themselves, as did much of the public, as knights of the road. Some were cautious, most were
friendly, and some must have seemed insane for the
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romanticized over time, but theirs was a difficult and sometimes dangerous task. A driver usually traveled about 60 miles of the road, referred to as a section, and was therefore very familiar with it. He carried a bugle to warn the station keeper to prepare for a change of animals because, to keep the schedule (Figure 30), th^ was
2
supposed to be accomplished in ten minutes. However, the operation required more than drivers, who comprised only about one-fourth of the Butterfield employees. In addition to the black- smiths and other specialists spread along the line, every station had one or more keepers, who were responsible for the well-being of the animals stocked there, protection of the company property and, at some stations, the feeding of the passengers. There werealsotheconductors. Theconductorwasin ultimate control of the coach. He rode with the drivers across several sections of the r oute that might include all of one of the nine divisions. To make certain that everyone, including the passengers, un- derstood their responsibilities, Butterfield issued a page of “Special Instructions” to be followed (Fig-
ure 31).
With the multitudinous preparations ac-
complished, the line was ready by the contracted time. Leach and his crew were in the final stages of the road work between the Rio Grande and Fort Yuma when Butterfield’s first stage rolled in mid-
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The through-fare west was $200, but only half that was charged for those return- ing to the east. Meals were 50 cents extra. Usually the food was simple and of poor quality, which later led one passenger to remark that at one stop both table and food were black with flies, and the pests had to be spooned out of the tea before drinking
105 Waypassengers,thosetravelinglessthanthe full distance, were charged 15 cents per mile, mail was 10 cents per half ounce, and the freight fee was one dollar per 100 pounds per 100 miles?06
When the first mail was ready, there was to be a race. On September 16, 1858, at 8 o’clock in the morning, the mail coming from St. Louis to Tipton, Missouri, was preceded by two hours by an eastbound train carrying mail that would go by ocean steamer from New York to San Francisco, by way of Panama, where it would be due about October 11 or
12. TheOverlandMailcoachracedwestcarrying John Butterfield, who rode as far as Little Rock, and 23-year-old Waterman Lilly Ormsby, a reporter for
tions in the western division
the drivers have been
The Butterfield Overland Mail Company
Each station would require 50 to
This vehicle had smaller wheels
driving they did and the risks they took.
Certainly
The Celerity wagon
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September, 1858.
it.