The people of Atchison in the sixties little realized the advantages the town gained by being the starting point for the California mail. They became used to it, the same as we have this day been accustomed to the daily arrival and departure of trains, but it was a gloomy day for Atchison when “the overland” finally pulled out of the town for good, after having run its stages out of the city almost daily for five years. The advance of the Union Pacific railroad from Omaha west along the Platte to Ft. Kearney, and the completion of the Kansas Pacific railway was the cause of the abandonment of Atchison by the “overland” as a point of departure for the mail. The company for many weeks before its final departure had been taking both stock and coaches off of the eastern division from the Missouri river to Rock creek, and other steps in preparation for moving the point of departure further west were taken. It was a little after 11 o’clock in the morning of December 19, 1866, that the long train of Concord stages, express coaches, hacks and other rolling stock started from their stables and yards on Second street to leave Atchison forever. The procession went west out of Atchison along Commercial street. Alex Benham and David Street, both faithful employees of “The Overland,” were in charge of the procession and they rode out of town in a Concord buggy. Other employees followed in buggies and coaches, and then the canvas covered stages, followed by over forty teams and loose horses, slowly moved out of town, headed for Fort Riley and Junction City. ROUTE FROM ATCHISON via the SMOKY HILL FORK ROUTE.