Carrizo Creek Station
Overland Mail stagecoach stop in California
Carrizo Creek Station, a former stage station of the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and Butterfield Overland Mail, located in Imperial County, California just east of the San Diego County line. It lies within the boundaries of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park just west of the Carrizo Impact Area. Its site is located along the bank of Carrizo Creek.[1]
History
Carrizo, the site of the Carrizo Stage Station, lies on the Southern Emigrant Trail where Carrizo Creek flowed at the surface most of the year, and often provided the first flowing water to travelers on that route after they had left the Colorado River. Earlier, Carrizo had been a watering place for the local Native Americans, Spanish explorers, Mexican traders, American fur trappers and soldiers.
Military Storehouse
The 1855 Railroad Survey expedition camped at Carrizo in June and its report described the place:
Carrizo creek runs over a series of stratified clays and gravels, derived from the decomposition of the primary rocks, chiefly syenite, loose drifted pebbles of which cover up the sand beds of the valley. Through this sand the Carrizo, in places, cuts its way very deeply. At the camp (June 3) on the river, the sand is deposited unconformable to the primitive rocks, upon whose side it reposes. It is mainly composed of disintegrated syenitic rock.
The storekeeper inhabiting the adobe house, newly built at camp, informed us that, for the eight months previous to our visit, it had not rained but once, and then for eight hours heavily; at the foot of such lofty, rough crested hills, rain, indeed, must be scarce, yet the evidences of running water are displayed in the base of the triangular valleys leading out from the range, where large stones are washed out of the clay and sand and heaped together, the result of existing causes.
The temperature at Carrizo on the 3d June at noon was 100°F, and rose to 102° later in the day. The effect of this heat was visible on the stream, which ceased flowing about 11 o'clock, and did not recommence until near 4 p. m., being absorbed or evaporated during the interval ; two miles below it completely disappears in the sand.[2]
At Carrizo Creek the mail company used the adobe constructed by the military in June 1855, as a station building. It was described by a correspondent as an old adobe house with the thatch roof burned off, occupied by William Mailland in the fall of 1857.[3]
Stagecoach Station
The station at Carrizo Creek became an important link in the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line. It functioned as one of seven major stations west of the Rio Grande River. Passengers at Carrizo Creek disembarked here to change coaches leaving the east-bound stage from San Diego and boarded another that ran between Carrizo and Fort Yuma.[4] The coach remained at the station until the other returned with west-bound passengers that had boarded in Yuma. Watering stations were established at an average of 30 mile intervals [5]
That first Carrizo station keeper, William Mailland, in a drunken fit brutally killed his Native American wife in May 1858. Fearing revenge by the local natives and arrest by authorities after he sobered up, he was said to have fled into the desert and was believed to have died, while an acquaintance claimed he had been seen east of the Colorado River, fleeing to Sonora.[6]
Under the Butterfield Overland Mail, Carrizo Station, like other stations, functioned as a changing or "swing" station that replaced teams with fresh horses. Carrizo had a single keeper, a hostler, who took care of the livestock and with the driver changed the teams.[7]
After the Butterfield Overland Mail shut down in March 1861, the Union Army used the station as a camp on their road to Fort Yuma and Arizona Territory. It became a stage station again for the Banning and Thomlinson lines from 1867 until 1877 when the railroad arrived in Fort Yuma making the route obsolete.
Modern Discoveries At The Site
During March and April 2001, a systematic archaeological testing program was implemented at the Carrizo Stage Station site. The initial field test excavations and artifact analysis confirmed the presence of two structures and remains of the 1857 to 1877 Carrizo Stage Station. After excavation it was subsequently reburied and erosion protection features were installed to prevent further damage to the site.[8]
References
- ^ Stephen R. Van Wormer, Sue Wade, Susan D. Walter, Susan Arter, AN ISOLATED FRONTIER OUTPOST, HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE CARRIZO CREEK STAGE STATION, California State Parks, 2007. Note page 6 has a photo of the site taken in the late 19th Century and one taken in 1999.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Reports of explorations and surveys: to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, Volume 7, By United States. War Dept, Joseph Henry, Spencer Fullerton Baird, United States Army, Corps of Engineers, Geological Report, Thomas Antisell, M.D., Geologist of the Expedition, Washington D.C. 1856; CHAPTER XVIII. Geology of the district from San Diego to Fort Yuma, pp. 121–123
- ^ Sacramento Union December 24, 1857
- ^ Report to Hon. A. V. Brown, postmaster-general, on the opening and present condition of the United States overland mail route between San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego, California,: by J. C. Wood, Superintendent, Washington, D. C., March 1858. pp.23-24, 26-27
- ^ Sacramento Union August 12, 1857, Page 3, Later from Southern California.
- ^ San Diego Herald, May 29, 1858, MURDER at CARRISO.
- ^ 1860 Federal Census, Manuscript Returns, Schedule 4, Agriculture; Manuscript Returns, Schedule 1, Population, San Diego Historical Society Research Archives.
- ^ Van Wormer, Wade, Walter, Arter, AN ISOLATED FRONTIER OUTPOST, 2007, p.5
External links
- Carrizo Creek Station on the Butterfield Overland Mail Line, accessed from parks.ca.gov on October 25, 2013 Photo of excavated Carrizo Stage Station site with captions describing its features.
32°52′30″N 116°6′1″W / 32.87500°N 116.10028°W / 32.87500; -116.10028
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Butterfield Overland Mail 2nd Division Stations
- Los Angeles – Located 12 miles southeast of Cahuenga Station in the pueblo of Los Angeles. The 2nd Division headquarters was in a brick building, consisting of an office, blacksmith shop, stables and sheds.
- Monte – Located 13 miles east of Los Angeles.
- Rancho San Jose – Located 12 miles east of Monte in present-day Pomona.
- Rancho Santa Ana del Chino – Located 12 miles southeast of Rancho San Jose.
- Temescal Station – Located 20 miles southeast of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino.
- Laguna Grande Station – Located 10 miles southeast of Temescal Station, near present-day Lake Elsinore.
- Alamos or Willow Springs Station – a later station, 11 miles south of Laguna Grande Station.
- Temecula Station – Located 21 miles southeast of Laguna Grande Station.
- Tejungo Station – Located 14 miles east of Temecula Station, near Aguanga
- Oak Grove Stage Station – Located 12 miles southeast of Tejungo Station.
- Warner's Ranch – Located 10 miles southeast of Oak Grove Station.
- San Felipe Station – Located 10 miles southeast of Warner's Ranch, northwest of nearby Scissors Crossing.
- Vallecito Station – Located 18 miles southeast of San Felipe Station.
- Palm Spring Station – Located 9 miles southeast of Vallecito Station at Palm Spring.
- Carrizo Creek Station – Located 9 miles east southeast of Palm Spring Station.
- Sackett's Wells – a later station, located 171⁄2 miles east southeast of Carrizo Creek Station, 15 miles west northwest of Indian Wells.
- Indian Wells Station – Located 32 miles southeast of Carisso Creek, near present day Heber, no water except at station.
- New River Station – a later station, located 15 miles southeast of Indian Wells Station, in Baja California, 14 miles west of Alamo Mocho Station, in present day Mexicali.
- Alamo Mocho Station – Located south of the Mexican border in Baja California, 38 miles east of Indian Wells Station, no water except at station.
- Gardner's Wells Station – a later station, located south of the Mexican border in Baja California, 9 miles east of Alamo Mocho and 9 miles west of Seven Wells.
- Salt or Seven Wells – a later well, located south of the Mexican border in Baja California, 18 miles east of Alamo Mucho.
- Cooke's Wells Station – Located south of the Mexican border in Baja California, 22 miles east of Alamo Mocho Station, no water except at station.
- Pilot Knob Station – Located 18 miles east of Cooke's Wells.
- Fort Yuma Station – Located 10 miles east of Pilot Knob Station.
Source: "List of Butterfield Overland Mail Stations "Itinerary of the Route"" (PDF). New York Times. October 14, 1858.
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County seat: El Centro | ||
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