Burke's Station was a

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

station on the

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service in ...

route in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

. It was named in 1858 after Patrick Burke, the first proprietor of the station. It was temporarily closed when the Butterfield line shut down during 1861 due to the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. Burke's was located 9.43 miles from Grinnels Ranch approximately halfway over the difficult route to Oatman Flat. It was afterward purchased by

King Woolsey King S. Woolsey (ca. 1832 – June 30, 1879) was an American pioneer rancher, prospector and politician in 19th century Arizona. Woolsey Peak and other features of Arizona geography have been named after him, but he has also been criticized by h ...

. Later revived as a stagecoach station in 1866, it was purchased by William Fourr who also sold flour and groceries there and acquired a dairy herd. Then in 1869, Fourr sold Burkes Station and it continued as a stage station until the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

arrived in Arizona, making it obsolete.The Fourr Ranch accessed on July 27, 2011
After closure as a stage station, the name was changed to 'Burkes Ranch' and by 1900 to 'Alpha' (AZ-T101).

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkes Station Butterfield Overland Mail in New Mexico Territory American frontier History of Arizona by location Stagecoach stations in New Mexico