Potts Inn / Butterfield's Overland Mail

Potts Inn, also, Butterfield's Overland Mail. . Potts Inn John Kirkbride Potts (1803-1879) was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Arkansas in the 1820s. In 1828 he settled by Galla Creek, eventually acquiring 650 acres of land. Potts went to California in the Gold Rush of 1849: he failed to strike gold but returned there twice in the early 1850s, driving cattle to feed the miners. With his profits, Potts built this grand home for his large family. Completed in 1858, the house's location on Butterfield's new Overland Mail route made it a convenient stagecoach station and inn for travelers to spend the night. Potts Station also served as a post office with Potts as the postmaster. Pottsville was later named for him., Butterfield's Overland Mail Needing reliable mail service to California, the U.S. government hired John Butterfield (1801-1869), operator of a stagecoach company in New York, to open an overland route. From 1858, Butterfield's Overland Mail Company delivered mail and passengers by stagecoach and wagon between the Mississippi River and the West Coast in under 25 days. Running via Arkansas, Texas, and New Mexico on its way to California, this 2,800-mile-long southern route avoided snow and was the longest stage line in history. In Arkansas, two branches of the route converged at Fort Smith: a north-south road from St. Louis, Missouri, and an east-west road from Memphis, Tennessee. Butterfield's service on this southern line ended in 1861 due to the onset of the Civil War.