By special act passed August 3, 1854, Congress laid out a monthly mail route from Neosho, Missouri, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, with an annual subsidy of $17,000.00.  Since the Mexican War this region had come to be of great commercial and military importance.  A little later, in March 1855, the route was changed by the Government to run monthly from Independence and Kansas City, Missouri, to Stockton, California, via Albuquerque, and the contractors were awarded a yearly bonus of $80,000.00 This line was also a financial failure.

The early overland routes were granted large subsidies and the privilege of charging high rates for passengers and freight.  To the casual observer it may seem strange that practically all these lines operated at a disastrous loss.  It should be noted however, that they covered an immense territory, many portions of which were occupied by hostile Indians.  It is no easy task to move military forces and supplies thousands of miles through a wilderness.  Furthermore, the Indians were elusive and hard to find when sought by a considerable force.  They usually managed to attack when and where they were least expected.  Consequently, if protection were secured at all, it usually fell to the lot of the stage companies to police their own lines, which was expensive business.  Often they waged, single-handed, Indian campaigns of considerable importance, and the frontiersmen whom they could assemble for such duty were sometimes more effective than the soldiers who were unfamiliar with the problems of Indian warfare.

Added to these difficulties were those incident to severe weather, deep snow, and dangerous streams, since regular highways and bridges were almost unknown in the regions traversed.  Not to mention the handicap and expense which all these natural obstacles entailed, business on many lines was light, and revenues low.

News from Washington about the creation of the new territory of Utah — in September 1850 — was not received in Salt Lake City until January 1851.  The report reached Utah by messenger from California, having come around the continent by way of the Isthmus of Panama.  The winters of 1851-52, and 1852-53 were frightfully severe and such expensive delays were not uncommon.  The November mail of 1856 was compelled to winter in the mountains.

In the winter of 1856-57 no steady service could be maintained between Salt Lake City and Missouri on account of bad weather.  Finally, after a long delay, the postmaster at Salt Lake City contracted with the local firm of Little, Hanks, and Co., to get a special mail to and from Independence.  This was accomplished, but the ordeal required seventy-eight days, during which men and animals suffered terribly from cold and hunger.  The firm received $1,500.00 for its trouble.  The Salt Lake route returned to the Government a yearly income of only $5,000.00.

The route from Independence to Stockton, which cost Uncle Sam $80,000.00 a year, collected in nine months only $1,255.00 in postal revenues, whereupon it was abolished July 1st, 1859.