Colbert's Ferry (Butterfield Overland Mail)

Colbert came to this stretch of the Red River in the late 1840s and raised cotton and cattle with enslaved labor, and the 1972 National Register nomination adds a steam sawmill, a gristmill and a cotton gin. When the Butterfield coaches began running in 1858 his house was the station: two rooms about 16 by 18 feet with a 12-foot dogtrot between, two lean-to rooms behind, and a separate log kitchen, as his son Holmes Colbert described it. He kept up the road and ferried the stage and its passengers free. Only foundation stones and a cellar remain.

What the plaque says

Butterfield Overland Mail Site of Colbert's Ferry Here was located a stage stand of the Butterfield Overland Mail route, under act of Congress, March 3, 1857. First mail stage arrived here in September, 1858, enroute to San Francisco. Service continued until the outbreak of the War Between the States. Oklahoma Historical Society, 1958

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Choctaw Cultural Center — 12 mi
  The Choctaw Nation's history told from the Chahta side at Calera, with galleries from Nanih Waiya to the Trail of Tears and the reservation today, a living village and daily stickball.

More markers nearby

• Colbert's Ferry — 2.6 mi
• Red River Bridge — 2.7 mi
• Fisher's Station — 12 mi
• Durant — 14 mi