Description: From 1857 to 1861 the Butterfield Overland Stage Company operated stage coach services across the western United States,from St. Louis, MO to San Diego, CA, passing through a good portion of Arizona. This was the first serious scheduled link across the country to provide mail and passenger service. Despite this, it was neither fast, easy, or cheap to make the trip, to say nothing of comfortable! Butterfield, along with Holladay, was absorbed into Wells Fargo in 1866. Across the west there were also many local stage services that linked mines and mining towns to big population centers. As the railroad became more popular and profitable, the days of the stagecoach were numbered. An exact date for the last stage service in Arizona is unknown, but certainly by 1900, almost all stage companies had gone belly up or been absorbed into the railroads.