?????At the beginning of the Civil War military strength in the West declined and often it was impossible to safeguard stages carrying the United States mail along the Oregon-California-Mormon Trail. Early in 1862 "Stagecoach King" Ben Holladay acquired the transcontinental stage business and the United States mail subsidy contract. He named his new company the Overland Stage Line and soon abandoned the central trail.
?????Holladay determined that a route further south was better because it would be safer, shorter and closer to Denver where economic growth was taking place due to the 1859 gold rush. The new route, established by trappers and explorers, became known as the Overland Trail.
?????The Overland split off from the older Oregon Trail near North Platte, Nebraska. From that point coaches paralleled the South Platte, rolling west through Colorado before turning north to begin a steep and rocky climb into southern Wyoming where the trail flanked the Medicine Bow Range before turning westward again. After crossing plains, rivers and streams and winding through mountain passes, the trail entered the Green River Basin. Traffic passed through this valley, following Bitter Creek to its confluence with the Green River. It then branched north to join the Oregon Trail near the junction of the Blacks Fork and Hams Fork rivers. From there the trail continued west and south toward Salt Lake City and eventually Placerville, California.
?????The short but exciting period of Overland Trail transportation lasted for seven years until 1869 when the Union Pacific Railroad replaced the transcontinental Overland stage as the major, east-west transportation system. Nevertheless, emigrants and settlers continued to use the trail until after the turn of the century.
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