Pinery Station: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, National Park Service

Nelson, Peggy

The Pinery Station cultural landscape is a 4.41-acre component of the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, located in western Texas. The site is associated with various stations and posts along the Overland Butterfield Mail Route/Trail. This inventory unit represents an expansion of the National Register boundary, intended to include all of the features that contribute to the historic significance of Pinery Station. Coinciding with western settlement, the U.S. Post Office Department began to make plans for transcontinental mail service in 1849. The system was funded by Congress in 1857; that year, John Butterfield agreed to provide semi-weekly service for a period of four years. Butterfield’s mail service followed the southern route established by earlier military expeditions and railroad investigations in the region. Situated at Guadalupe Pass, the Pinery Station occupied the highest point on the early Butterfield route and was the fourth station constructed by the company. The Pinery Station was named for the surrounding forest of pine trees and was located about ¼ mile from Pine Spring, providing a water source. Although only partially constructed when the first mail coach arrived on September 28, 1858, the Pinery Station was completed by November 1858. The Pinery Station operated as a meal and rest stop for passengers and as a changing station for the horses or mules. In August 1859, Butterfield abandoned the station and changed the route to El Paso, through Fort Stockton and Fort Davis. Into the mid-1880s, the Pinery Station continued to be utilized by emigrants, soldiers, squatters, and renegades as a shelter and retreat. During its brief operation, the Pinery Station housed a station keeper and up to eight employees, including a cook, blacksmith, and herders. During the early 1900s, the Pinery Station property became part of a ranch. Other changes to the site include fenced off areas for rangeland, the addition of windmills and other ranch-associated features, and the effects of highway development. When Guadalupe Mountains National Park was established in 1972, only one wall of the main enclosure remained standing. Enough rubble remained from the other walls to establish an outline of the two main enclosures, and slight traces of the remains of the stockade, stage road, and acequia were visible. Several archeological surveys were conducted since the 1971 acquisition by the National Park Service (NPS), one in 1974 and another in 1992. The NPS had also stabilized the main building to prevent further deterioration of the limestone walls. The Pinery Station is significant because it is the only remaining ruin of an original Butterfield company-built station along the historic route located in close proximity to a national highway, making it accessible to visitors. Pinery Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The landscape is significant for its association with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history, particularly in the areas of settlement and communications. It is also a significant archeological site because it has yielded and is likely to yield further information important to understanding prehistory or history. The period of significance for the Pinery Station is 1858-1859, representing the year that the station was in operation as part of the Overland Butterfield Mail Route. The area that is associated with the development and use of the Pinery Stations retains integrity in location, setting, feeling, design, materials, and workmanship. Contributing features include the structural ruins of the station, corral, dugout features, and possible privy; traces of the old Butterfield Trail/Route, the native vegetation typical of the Chihuahuan Desert, the State of Texas historical marker, and a granite marker placed by American Airlines.

Pinery Station: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, National Park Service

Series