"The Overland Trail Mail route was established and owned by Ben Holladay, the "Stagecoach King." Sometimes confused with the "Oregon" or "California" Trail, which actually followed the North Platte Valley from Nebraska through Wyoming, the Overland Trail refers specifically to that portion of the mail and passenger route, established in 1862, that avoided the Indian uprisings that were occurring on the Oregon Trail farther north through central Wyoming along the Sweetwater-South Pass route. In July, 1862, the US Post Office Department ordered Ben Holladay, and the Overland Stage Company, to officially relocate from the central Wyoming route, to a route which had been known, in part, as the Cherokee Trail. Not just a cutoff or a detour, it became for a while the only emigrant route on which the US Government would allow travel, and consequently was the principal corridor to the west from 1862 to 1868." (Alliance for Historic Wyoming Web April, 2012)
Other Names:
Overland Stage Line, Overland Stage Trail, Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express
County:
Albany; Carbon; Sweetwater; Uinta
Feature Category:
Manmade Features
More Reading:
The Bridger Pass, Overland Trail, 1862-1869 : through Colorado and Wyoming and cross roads at the Rawlins-Baggs Stage Road in Wyoming : stories and history with rare photographs. Rev. Erb, Louise Bruning. [S.l] : L.B. Erb, A.B. Brown, G.B. Hughes, 1989 Printing by Journal Pub. Co.); The overland stage : a history and guidebook. Townley, John M. Reno, NV : Jamison Station Press, 1994.
