The route in West Texas was changed in 1859, in order to secure a better water supply on the route and to provide mail service to a more settled area, the stages between Franklin, Redmond, Washington and the Pecos River followed the San Antonio-El Paso Road to Camp Stockton and then turned east to Horsehead Crossing.

From Colberts Ferry the route went on to Fort Smith, then up across Arkansas and southwest Missouri to Tipton with the final leg by train to St. Louis.

From Horsehead Crossing the trail ran seventy waterless miles east northeast across the Llano Estacado to the headwaters of the Middle Concho River, then northward, about thirty miles to Johnson's Station, along the Middle Concho river.

Although this was mitigated when an arraignment was made to use the stations of George H. Giddings' San Antonio-El Paso Mail along that route.

Losses from this change and debt taken on from a delay of postal revenue, eventually led the investors in the Overland Mail Company to take control and dismiss John Warren Butterfield in 1860.