History Almost Lost--Pinery Station at Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Ruin of the Pinery Station stagecoach stop
at Guadalupe Mountains National Park

One of the historic jewels of our region is the legacy of the Butterfield Overland Mail Stage, the first transcontinental delivery of the mail by stage coach.  Just beyond the Pinery Station (the ruins less than a mile from Guadalupe Mountains National Park visitors center) was the meeting of the first westernbound Butterfield stagecoach and the first easternbound Butterfield stagecoach in 1858.  Travelers endured great hardships to make the trip from Missouri to San Francisco, and visiting the ruins gives some insight into the long journey.

The ruins are on the Pinery Trail an easy walking path, for just about everyone.  Pets are allowed on the trail, as long as they're on leash.

The white strip behind the Pinery ruin is the limestone
path left by the September floods, narrowly missing an
important historic site

This fall, the park experienced a unprecedented rains, and a great deal of flooding, which closed most of the park for a time.  And with that flood, the Pinery station dodged a bullet...the stream bed behind the ruin became a roaring river.  Now a gleaming white path as wide as a freeway, just steps from the Pinery, the limestone deposited by the flood.

The wide swath of limestone left by the September flood