The San Diego Herald Newspaper proclaimed the First Transcontinental Mail Delivery " the most important event which has ever occurred in the annals of San Diego, and undoubtedly constitutes an epoch in the Pacific Coast of the Union, which will be recorded and remembered with just pride, long after the mails will have been transported on the great continental railroad the first rail of which may be thus said to have been laid."  (San Diego Herald September 5, 1857)

In 2007, several agencies in the southland had events to commemorate and memorialize the 1857 completion of the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line (SA&SD).  The SA&SD was the first intercontinental communication link, joining the newly-won western territories with the Midwest and East Coast of the United States.  The SA&SD blazed the trail for the Butterfield Stage route that replaced it in 1858.  Several equestrian-focused reenactments happen along the SA&SD mail line and official celebration of the arrival of the first mail takes took place on August 31, 2007 in Old Town San Diego SHP. 

View 150th Anniversary Celebration Brochure  (pdf 268 kb)
See history come alive at the Vallecito Stage Station (video) on the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line.
Find out what the archaeologists learned in the Historical and Archaeological Investigations at the Carrizo Creek Stage Station report. The archaeologists' site research has helped to write part of the stage line story once lost to the desert sands of California.
 

Routes of the San Antonio and San Diego and Butterfield Overland Mail Lines


Map of the Routes of the San Antonio and San Diego and Butterfield Overland Mail Lines
Use this link for a  Printable Version of SA & SD and Butterfield Lines  Map.  (pdf 48.8 kb)

Overland Mail Routes Between Fort Yuma, San Diego and Temecula

Map of the Overland Mail Routes between Fort Yuma, San Diego and Temecula. (California State Parks)
Use this link for a  Printable Version of the Overland Mail Routes  Map. (pdf 170 kb)

The San Antonio & San Diego Mail / Butterfield Stage crosses some 35 miles of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Parklands.  Today, driving on paved roads, the park visitor can easily experience vast areas of the Anza-Borrego Desert that in earlier decades were only accessible by foot or on horseback.  Commuters regularly travel between Yuma, Arizona and San Diego, California, a trip of less than 8 hours and of no particular hardship.  In the nineteenth century, however, such a journey took many days and without proper planning, could be quite dangerous.
 
The delays and hazards not only made travel difficult, but precluded reliable communication.  Today, computers and cell phones provide us with instant communication.  In the nineteenth century, letters took days to compose and months to cross the Southwest deserts and Midwest plains between the West and East coasts of the United States.  In 1850 San Diego, it might have been months before the citizens learned of important news events such as the election of the President or a scientific discovery. 
 
Shortly after California was annexed to the United States at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, reliable transportation and communication between the West and East coasts became an immediate need.  The United States sent expeditions to explore the southern route for transportation and communication possibilities.  This southern route had been known by several names since parts of it had first been used by Juan Bautista de Anza.   In the early 1800s it was known as the Sonora Road, used regularly by Mexicans traveling between Sonora and California.  In the mid-1800s, the United State military expeditions of General Stephen Kearney and Colonel Phillip St. James Cooke traversed the desert along the route to occupy California during the Mexican-American War.  In 1849, it became known as the Southern Emigrant Trail, used by thousands of Americans traveling to the gold fields in Northern California. 

In 1857, the United State Congress authorized the San Antonio & San Diego Mail to establish an overland mail route between the Mississippi River and San Francisco.  The first SA&SD mail riders, traveling west from San Antonio, arrived in San Diego on August 31, 1857 establishing the first transcontinental mail line.

Use this link to read about the history of the San Antonio & San Diego Mail Line and the Butterfield Stage. (pdf 540 kb)
Additional information is available at this link to Butterfield Stagecoaches.

Carrizo Creek Stage Station

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