To accomplish this Birch entered a partnership with George H. Giddings, of the San Antonio-El Paso Mail that already ran over half of the route to La Mesilla.
[2] 87 watering places and stage stations were organized by Superintendent Isaiah C. Woods, formerly of Adams & Company of California in San Francisco.
Superintendent Woods prepared a self-contained outfit for this journey across the unsettled country of Texas, New Mexico Territory and Southern California with almost no existing infrastructure.
The largest and most important station between El Paso and San Diego was at Maricopa Wells, Arizona, the dividing point on the route, where the eastbound and westbound mails met and turned back.
On September 20, 1858, the Butterfield Overland Mail Company began operating their stageline over the road, and using the station sites pioneered by Birch and Woods from El Paso, Texas, to Warner's Ranch, California.
In May 1861, this company was given a new contract for the year ending June 30, 1862, to operate a mail service over the entire route from San Antonio via Camp Stockton, to Tucson and points in California.
An attempt was made to fulfil the contract, beginning April 1, but with the development of the Civil War, and Apache attacks on the stations and coaches of the line resulting from the Bascom Affair, the contractors were compelled to give up.