Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail

The Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail follows the route of the antebellum Butterfield Overland mail route through seven states, including Arkansas. John Butterfield ran the first transcontinental mail route with a business that started in 1858 and ended in 1861. Despite the route’s relatively short lifespan, the National Park Service (NPS) found that it was crucial in shaping American history.

Arkansas efforts to have the Butterfield route designated as a national historic trail were spearheaded in 2003 by Heritage Trail Partners, a preservation organization based in Springdale (Washington and Benton counties) that had been marking historic routes in northwestern Arkansas. A year later, the group approached U.S. representative John Boozman, who was supportive. In 2006, Boozman set up a meeting with National Park Service director Fran Mainella. After the meeting in Springdale, Mainella urged Boozman to introduce legislation, and so he sponsored HB 5980 on July 28, 2006, for a feasibility study.

The study was officially approved in 2009, and the NPS completed it in 2014, concluding that it found “the trail to be significant, feasible, suitable, and desirable for designation as a national historic trail, if Congress chooses to do so.” The project languished until February 2022, when Boozman (by this time a U.S. senator) filed S-3519, which was co-sponsored by U.S. senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and three other legislators. The bill passed both houses of Congress by December 22, 2022, and the Butterfield trail was officially added to the national historic trail system on January 5, 2023.

There are two major routes in the Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail. The longest, the Oxbow Route, begins in St. Louis, Missouri (although mail was carried by rail from St. Louis to Tipton, Missouri), and passes through Benton, Washington, Crawford, and Sebastian counties in Arkansas before continuing through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona and ending at San Francisco, California. Fitzgerald’s Station in Springdale is the only standing structure on this route in Arkansas that survives in the twenty-first century, but four Arkansas road segments associated with the Butterfield Overland Mail are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The other route runs between Memphis, Tennessee, and Fort Smith (Sebastian County), where it links with and follows the Oxbow Route. This route included stops in St. Francis, Prairie, Lonoke, Faulkner, Conway, Pope, Logan, Yell, and Franklin counties. Potts Inn in Pottsville (Pope County), a stagecoach stop, survives in the twenty-first century.

The Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail Association, a national nonprofit organization, supports the trail.

For additional information:
“Butterfield National Historic Trail Association Chapters Subject of Gathering in Springdale.” Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 4, 2023. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/may/04/butterfield-national-histoIcric-trail-association/ (accessed March 13, 2025).

“Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail.” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/buov/index.htm (accessed March 13, 2025).

“Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail Comprehensive Plan.” National Park Service. https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?parkID=456&projectID=118557 (accessed March 13, 2025).

“Butterfield Overland Trail Stage Stations.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/butterfield-overland-trail-stage-stations.htm (accessed March 13, 2025).

Heifner, Marilyn. “The Long Road to National Historic Trail Status.” Northwest Heritage Trail Partners. https://www.heritagetrailpartners.com/2023/01/butterfield-overland-trail-national-designation-2/ (accessed March 13, 2025).

Rice, Maylon. “Butterfield Historic Trail Named to National Parks Trail System.” Washington County Enterprise-Leader, June 14, 2023. https://wcel.nwaonline.com/news/2023/jun/14/butterfield-historic-trail-named-to-national/ (accessed March 13, 2025).

Wood, Ron. “Butterfield Trail Receives National Designation.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 23, 2022, pp. 1B, 3B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/dec/23/butterfield-trail-gets-national-historic/ (accessed March 13, 2025).

———. “Historic Trail Planning Begins in NWA.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 1, 2023, pp. 1B, 3B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/dec/01/planning-for-arkansas-portion-of-butterfield/ (accessed March 13, 2025).

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas