lines; but his business energies were too expansive to be thus curtailed, and he soon found ampler vent for them than the ___ of his former vast carrying business afforded. Hence, when the overland mail route to California was projected, Mr. Kinyon [Kenyon] found a field of business enterprise more commensurate with his capacities. He it was who went over the whole route originally, and surveyed it from the eastern terminus to its western in California." Returning, he procured the necessary equipment for the route, and went over it again, organizing the route as he proceeded, and remained for nearly a year in California, in charge of the western terminus of the road." After winning the contract on September 16, 1857, Butterfield had one year to organize the trail and immediately sent his hand-picked team, headed by Marquis L. Kenyon, to San Francisco to begin the task. The steamer Star of New York left New York on November 20, 1857, with passengers "M.L. Kinyon [Kenyon], J. Butterfield [Jr.], F. De Ruyter and S.K. Nellis, who go out to open the Pacific Mail Route across the plains and arrange the western terminus of said route." The party left San Francisco on January 16, 1858, to begin laying out the trail and selecting the sites for stage stations. They traveled by mule covering about per day. Another party left St. Louis about the same time. Both were to meet at El Paso, Texas, and then return to St. Louis. The party from St. Louis was G.W. Wood, Jesse Talcott, and Charles P. Cole. A Fort Smith, Arkansas, newspaper reported: "The parties met at El Paso and after recruiting [used in the sense of recovering] a few days, the above gentlemen left for this city—making the trip to this place in twenty-two days from El Paso, and thirty-one days from San Francisco to El Paso, or fifty-six days, through with wagons. …The party from California, in crossing Arizona, took a middle route between Beale's and the Southern route – (but little traveled heretofore,) pronounced by them, as an excellent road." Another report describes the arrival of the two parties at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and tells us that the choice for the trail did not satisfy Kenyon and his party and they returned from El Paso, Texas, by a different route, which became the trail. "A portion of the exploring party sent out by