Butterfield Overland Mail in Missouri - 1858-1861

Syracuse began as a railroad town under another name. It was laid out in 1858 as Pacific City and renamed for Syracuse, New York, and when the Pacific Railway arrived in 1859 it became the line's western end and the new starting point for the Butterfield coaches. The town sits on a ridge whose runoff drains southeast toward Messer Creek and northwest toward Otter Creek, both in the Lamine River watershed that runs north to the Missouri. U.S. 50 leads five miles east to Tipton and nineteen west to Sedalia, and 151 people lived here in 2020.

What the plaque says

Butterfield Overland Mail in Missouri - 1858-1861 The George Shackelford Relay and Meal Station stood 1/2 mile south of Syracuse in Morgan County. In 1859, when the railroad reached Syracuse, it succeeded Tipton as Stage terminus. Civil War activity closed the terminus in March, 1861. Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri, 1958

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Katy Trail State Park — 27 mi
  Two hundred forty miles of the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas rail bed between Machens and Clinton, mostly along the Missouri River, first opened in 1990 at Rocheport, where it runs through the railroad's stone tunnel.

More markers nearby

• Tipton — 4.9 mi
• Morgan County — 17 mi
• Boonville — 22 mi
• Boonville/Franklin — 23 mi