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 Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

. Its site was at Cooke's Wells, named for

Philip St. George Cooke Philip St. George Cooke (June 13, 1809 – March 20, 1895) was a career United States Army cavalry officer who served as a Union General in the American Civil War. He is noted for his authorship of an Army cavalry manual, and is sometimes calle ...

whose expedition found them in 1847. It was at first the only water source east of

Alamo Mucho Station Alamo Mucho Station,Waterman L. Ormsby, Lyle H. Wright, Josephine M. Bynum, ''The Butterfield Overland Mail: Only Through Passenger on the First Westbound Stage.'' Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, 2007. pp.92-93. the misspelled name of ...

and west of the Pilot Knob Station on the

Southern Emigrant Trail :''The Southern Emigrant Trail should not be confused with the Applegate Trail, which is part of the Emigrant Trail, Northern Emigrant Trails.'' The Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, the Kearny Trail, the Southern Trail and ...

. Cooke's Wells were fed by spring flooding from the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

along the course of the

Alamo River The Alamo River () flows west and north from the Mexicali Valley (Baja California) across the Imperial Valley (California). The river drains into the Salton Sea. The New River, Alamo River, and the Salton Sea of the 21st century started in aut ...

that sank into the ground or formed small pools or lakes along its course that could provide water in the otherwise dry region. Later the stage company established two other stations in similar locations on the river west of Cooke's Wells, at Gardner's Wells Station east of Alamo Mucho and at Salt or Seven Wells east of Gardner's Wells and west of Cooke's Wells.

References

{{coord, 32, 40, 10, N, 114, 55, 35, W, display=title San Antonio–San Diego Mail Line Butterfield Overland Mail in Baja California American frontier Former populated places in Mexicali Municipality, Baja California Stagecoach stops