Butterfield Stage at Boggy Depot

by Joe Beeler

In 1858, John Butterfield won a government contract to carry mail from St Louis to San Francisco twice a week. Butterfield spent more than a million dollars to start up the company, employing over 800 people and running up to 250 coaches, 1,000 horses and 500 mules. The large, high quality coaches weighed about 2,500 pounds and cost about $1,300 at the time.

The Butterfield Overland Mail Company originally followed a southern route to avoid heavy mountain snows and traveled through Oklahoma with stops at Boggy Depot, among others. The entire trip of about 2,800 miles was made in 25 days and sometimes less. Lack of water and hostile Indians plagued the route throughout its existence. Although the coaches had the mail as their first priority, they also accepted passengers. The coaches traveled at breakneck speed 24 hours a day with the only stops at station houses where horses were changed.

In February 1861, when the citizens of Texas voted to secede from the Union, the southern mail route was discontinued in favor of a more northerly route, but the old Butterfield Road was later used by both the Confederate and the Union armies.

Boggy Depot's contribution to Oklahoma outlasted its structures, for it was the source of the state's name. Boggy Depot was home to Chief Allen Wright, principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, who suggested the word "Oklahoma" ("Home of the Red Man”) in 1866 as the name for the proposed Indian Territory. In 1907, the word was made the official state name.

The Boggy Depot State Park near Atoka in southeastern Oklahoma, is popular among travelers for its pleasant surrounding, recreational facilities and its significance as a major historical site.

Butterfield Stage at Boggy Depot by Joe Beeler was dedicated on April 26, 2004. The commission was managed by the Oklahoma State Senate Historical Preservation Fund, Inc.

The Artist

Joe Beeler is acknowledged as a pioneer in the field of Western art. His work is a blend of historic and contemporary subject matter.

He was formally trained at Tulsa University and the Art Center School of Design in California. As a youth, he spent many hours at the studio of Charles Banks Wilson studying his techniques. He began his professional career as an illustrator for the University of Oklahoma Press.

He has had one-man shows in every major western museum in the United States and is represented in numerous collections including Woolaroc and Gilcrease Museums in Oklahoma, and the Cody Museum in Wyoming. Beeler's art has been exhibited in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Charles M. Russell Museum, the Heard Museum and the Institute of Texas Cultures, among others.

In 1965, Beeler helped found the Cowboy Artists of America, the organization credited with inspiring the popularity of western art today. The Town of Sedona has honored him by erecting a sculpture of Joe Beeler in the middle of downtown. A native of Joplin, Missouri, Joe has "a hefty dose" of Cherokee blood.