Colbert Ferry Red River Stagecoach Cache — Grayson County

The Butterfield Overland Mail route ran from Diamond's station near Whitesboro to Sherman, then crossed the Red River at Colbert's Ferry eight miles below Preston before continuing toward Indian Territory. Passengers paid an average of $200 one-way and traveled with firearms ready for Indian attack. The mails completed the 2,795-mile St. Louis–San Francisco run within twenty-five days through most of the 1858–1861 service period. Red River crossing folklore imagines express pouches and passenger specie buried when ferries flooded or when the southern route closed in March 1861. Coordinates approximate the Colbert Ferry reach on the Red River.