The first large steel sections of a monument commemorating the Butterfield Stagecoach line were installed Wednesday, Oct. 28, in downtown Fort Smith near the location where the horse-drawn coaches stopped for mail beginning in 1858.
When completed, the monument is expected to depict a stagecoach, its horses and a driver in a life-size installation measuring 36 feet long. The steel framework placed Wednesday will allow workers to add smaller elements and landscaping, said Phil White, a member of the Central Business Improvement District who is helping coordinate the project.
A downtown site tied to the Overland Mail
The Butterfield line covered approximately 3,553 miles through Arizona, Arkansas, California, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Fort Smith served as the connection point for routes leading to Memphis and St. Louis.
The Fort Smith stop was located at what was then the John Rogers’ City Hotel in the 200 block of Garrison Avenue. The site of the new monument is a few feet from that former mail stop, connecting the downtown installation to the city’s role in the 19th-century Overland Mail system.
“In 1858, Fort Smith became a hub of the Overland Mail. The first Butterfield Mail stagecoach passed through Fort Smith in September on route to El Paso and then to California. This was a 15-day trip.” — National Park Service report
The coaches reached Fort Smith after crossing the Arkansas River by flatboat at Van Buren. From there, passengers and mail continued west. The National Park Service report said the westbound trip to California used mud wagons, while the route connected Fort Smith with other portions of the Butterfield system.
Project grew from downtown preservation effort
Jim Spears, a retired Fort Smith municipal judge who helped lead the effort to place the Bass Reeves statue downtown, asked the Central Business Improvement District in February to consider the Butterfield monument as a project. White agreed to help advance the proposal and has worked on the downtown development effort.
Spears died May 5 while battling cancer. His wife, Dixie Spears, was at the monument site Wednesday as the initial steel pieces were erected.
- The planned installation will show a stagecoach with horses and a driver.
- The monument will stand near the former Butterfield mail stop on Garrison Avenue.
- Lighting is planned after the dedication ceremony.
White said the monument is not finished. He hopes to hold a dedication ceremony before Thanksgiving, depending on when the remaining elements arrive and can be installed. Lighting will be added after the dedication, he said.
