# UX197 - 1994 19c Overland Mail Postal Card
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First Overland Mail DeliveryÂ
Like Americans everywhere, the â49ers in California wanted to get their mail, but 2,000 miles of desert and treacherous mountain passes lay between them and the end of the eastern mail lines. As a result, mail traveled by ship and across the Isthmus of Panama. In 1850 it took Californians six weeks to learn their territory had become a state. Outraged, they clamored for faster mail service.
On September 16, 1857, the Post Office awarded a $600,000-per-year contract to John Butterfield to establish another overland route. The agreement to deliver mail twice each week was the largest ever awarded in the U.S. at the time. The route would go through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
After about a year of preparation and $1,000,000 invested, the first mail shipment began when the first stagecoach left St. Louis on September 16, 1857. Butterfield had gathered over 2,000 mules and horses, 200 coaches, and 1,200 employees. The first shipment arrived in San Francisco on October 10, in 23 days, 23 hours â under the 25-day obligation his contract required. It had completed a journey of 2,800 miles.
Click here for more on the Butterfield Overland Mail Route.
Â
First Overland Mail DeliveryÂ
Like Americans everywhere, the â49ers in California wanted to get their mail, but 2,000 miles of desert and treacherous mountain passes lay between them and the end of the eastern mail lines. As a result, mail traveled by ship and across the Isthmus of Panama. In 1850 it took Californians six weeks to learn their territory had become a state. Outraged, they clamored for faster mail service.
On September 16, 1857, the Post Office awarded a $600,000-per-year contract to John Butterfield to establish another overland route. The agreement to deliver mail twice each week was the largest ever awarded in the U.S. at the time. The route would go through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
After about a year of preparation and $1,000,000 invested, the first mail shipment began when the first stagecoach left St. Louis on September 16, 1857. Butterfield had gathered over 2,000 mules and horses, 200 coaches, and 1,200 employees. The first shipment arrived in San Francisco on October 10, in 23 days, 23 hours â under the 25-day obligation his contract required. It had completed a journey of 2,800 miles.
Click here for more on the Butterfield Overland Mail Route.