History Matters!

The purpose of this blog is to present various papers and documents related to the History of the Frontier and American West with particular emphasis on the period 1850s through the Civil War. Particular focus of many of these articles is to establish modern driving routes that will (as closely as possible) allow modern students, scholars and interested parties to replicate the early transportation corridors via existing roads.

Researcher Kirby Sanders is the author of Driver's Guide to the Butterfield Overland Mail Route 1858-1861; Vol.1; Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas (Heritage Trail Partners, Springdale / Fayetteville AR; 2008) and numerous other articles and monographs. 

In June of 2011, Kirby Sanders also completed a Special Resource Study of the Butterfield Overland Mail Route for the National Park Service dealing with the historical background, station locations and route used by the Overland Mail (1858-1861) from St. Louis MO to San Francisco CA. That study (some 889 pages with 173 accompanying maps) was mandated under the auspices of Subtitle C; Section 7211 of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. It will used by the National Park Service to help establish a Butterfield Overland Mail Route National Trail or other other appropriate preservation plan for the entire Butterfield route.


Participation of other researchers is invited on these pages.