Kay and I both love history, and we love riding motorcycles. We often combine our dual sport rides with a bit of historical sleuthing. This time we decided to follow in the footsteps of the Butterfield Overland Stage Route as it made it’s way through Oklahoma from St. Louis to the 1850’s gold fields of California.
We met up with several of our closest riding friends at Clayton Lake State Park, one of our favorite camping spots. I had researched the route over the prior winter and discovered that the Oklahoma Historical Society had marked the stage stops with concrete markers on in 1958 on the 100’th anniversary of the start of the stage route. We jumped on our dual sport bikes – mine is a Suzuki DRZ-400 and Kay’s is a Honda CRF-230L – and went in search of a marker.
Kay and I love to ride our street-legal dirt bikes along dirt roads and trails throughout Oklahoma and Arkansas.The Butterfield Overland Stage Route was started in 1858 as a means of fast transportation from the transportation hub of St. Louis – and the end of the railroads – to the gold fields of California. Prior to the stage, travel to California was either by ship around the tip of South America – an arduous 3 month ordeal – or via a slow rumbling wagon train across the untamed west. Congress authorized funding for a faster mail route and an enterprising man named John Butterfield raised the money to fund the startup costs. This was not an insignificant investment. Stage stops were required every 15-17 miles. Each stage stop needed around 50 head of horses, someone to run the stop, a barn and pasture to house the horses, and a place for travelers to rest and eat. The stagecoachs themselves were quite expensive and custom-built for the journey.
This year we met several friends at Clayton Lake State Park and went searching for the Butterfield Overland Stage route.We didn’t have time to ride the entire route, but picked up the route on a dirt road south of Hartshorne along the Indian Nation Turnpike. We followed it eastbound searching for stage stop marker every 17 miles or so as marked on my GPS. The first four stops we found nothing, and were about to give up but decided to try one more stop. Low and behold we found a marker in a pasture near Poteau! Pretty darn cool find and capped off a fun day of riding dirt bikes with friends.
Every year someone in our group ends up with a flat tire on their motorcycle. No biggie, we have the tools to fix a flat on the trail.
Kay and I load up my Chevy Silverado for the 3.5 hour trip to Clayton, Oklahoma.
One of our favorite parts of our trip each year is sitting around the campfire each night with good friends.
I rode my Suzuki DRZ-400 on this trip. We stopped at an old school yard near Hartshorne, OK.
Our good friend and Kay’s fellow RE/MAX Realtor Connie Hamilton goes with us just about every year.
Clayton attracts all kinds of off-road vehicles. It is a Mecca for extreme 4WD.
There are a number of old fire towers scattered around the timberland of SE Oklahoma. They are no longer in use.
There are always plenty of water holes in the mountains of SE Oklahoma, but luckily not many mud holes because of the rocky terrain.
The Oklahoma Historical Society placed these stagecoach markers at the site of each stagecoach station in 1958 – the 100 year anniversary of the Butterfield Overland Stage Route.
We found this painted rock at one stage stop. We plan to place it at another stage stop soon.
Kay and our good friend Connie Hamilton have been riding together for about 10 years.
Cindi Jones is another riding friend. She was along for the trip, but this year was taking care of her son so wasn’t able to ride motorcycles with us.
Kay took a selfie of her and Connie while on the trail.
We stopped in McAlester on the way home and visited a pumpkin stand.