Stations on the Trail

The first Butterfield Overland Dispatch (BOD) coach left Atchison, Kansas on Monday, September 11th, 1865 and arrived in Denver on Monday, September 23rd, 1865. The trail covered 592 miles. Each station is marked with a BOD marker and the notch on the top of the marker indicated the direction of the trail from that point.

Kansas Stations

  1. Fort Leavenworth
  2. Easton
  3. Hickory Point
  4. Ozawkie
  5. Silver Lake
  6. St Mary’s
  7. Louisville
  8. Juniata Crossing
  9. Fort Riley
  10. Junction City
  11. Chapman Creek
  12. Abilene
  13. Solomon River Crossing
  14. Salina
  15. Spring Creek
  16. Fort Harker
  17. Buffalo Creek
  18. Wilson’s Creek
  19. Bunker Hill (Hick’s)
  20. Fossil Creek
  21. Forsythe’s Creek – abandoned for Fort Fletcher
  22. Fort Fletcher
  23. Big Creek
  24. Lookout
  25. Louisa Springs  – abandoned for Stormy Hollow
  26. Blufton – abandoned for Threshing Machine White Rock Canyon
  27. Stormy Hollow
  28. Downer – later Fort Downer
  29. Ruthton – used only a short time
  30. Castle Rock
  31. Grannell Springs
  32. Chalk Bluff
  33. Carlyle
  34. Monument – once Antelope Station, later a fort
  35. Smoky Hill
  36. Eaton
  37. Henshaw Springs
  38. Fort Wallace – Pond Creek
  39. Goose Creek
  40. Willow Creek
  41. Blue Mound

Colorado Stations-Southern Route

  1. Cheyenne Wells
  2. Eureka
  3. Duboise
  4. Grady’s
  5. Connell Creek
  6. Coon Creek
  7. Hogan’s
  8. Hedinger’s Lake
  9. Big Bend of Sandy
  10. Reed’s Spring
  11. Bijou Creek
  12. Kiowa Creek
  13. Ruthton
  14. Sulphur Gulch
  15. Cherry Creek
  16. Denver
    Source:The Raynesford Papers