- The Butterfield Overland Stage Line operated through Southern Arizona from 1858 to 1861, providing a vital 2,800-mile mail and passenger link between Missouri and San Francisco - Known as the "Oxbow Route" due to its sweeping southern crescent shape, this path was explicitly chosen to bypass winter mountain snows and keep coaches moving twice a week on a grueling 25-day schedule - The route in Arizona was split into two primary operational segments: the Fourth Division (extending from El Paso, Texas, to Tucson) and the Third Division (extending from Tucson to Yuma and into California) - Because water dictating survival in the Sonoran Desert, coaches jumped roughly every 20 miles between fortified stone and adobe stations - The original adobe station was situated in northwest Tucson, and the surviving remains of that historic stagecoach stop form part of the foundation for Li'l Abner's Steakhouse on Silverbell Road - At Fort Bowie National Historic Site, the history ...