Pilot Knob Station, a former

stage station A stage station or relay station, also known as a staging post, a posting station, or a stage stop, is a place where exhausted horses could be replaced by fresh animals, since a long journey was much faster without delays when horses needed rest ...

of the Butterfeild Overland Mail, located near

Andrade, California Andrade is a small locale in the southeasternmost corner of the state of California, in Imperial County. The community is located entirely within the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation. It is directly across the border from Los Algodones, the northe ...

. It was placed 10 miles west of the

Fort Yuma Fort Yuma was a fort in California located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861 and was abandoned May 16, 1883, and transferred to the Department o ...

stage station on the road along the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

, in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, and 18 miles east of the

Cooke's Wells Station Cooke's Wells Station a stage station of the Butterfeild Overland Mail, located south of the Mexican border, in the old Alamos River bed, about 1 km west northwest of Mérida, Baja California. Its site was at Cooke's Wells, named for Philip ...

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

. It was subsequently used by the Union Army as station for its troops and supply wagons during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

and was a stage station again after the Civil War until the Southern Pacific Railroad, arrived in

Yuma, Arizona Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...

ending the need for the stage line from California.

References

Butterfield Overland Mail in California American frontier Stagecoach stations in California Transportation buildings and structures in Imperial County, California {{ImperialCountyCA-geo-stub