Lot
163 
(Mail Routes) Jackass Mail Route. Cover franked with two 1851 3¢ dull red tied by "West Point, N.Y." cds addressed to Lieut. B DuBarry, Fort Yuba, with manuscript endorsement "Via San Diego" at bottom left & "due 10" at top, one stamp with small adherence & other with trivial stain, Very Fine, a stunning cover carried on this fabled & little used route. Estimate $1,500 - 2,000.
This cover was carried via New York City, Chagres, and Panama to San Francisco on the regular steamship route. From San Francisco it was carried by the California Steam Navigation Company to San Diego and then over the mule-mail route to Fort Yuma.
It was June 1857 before the contract was let for the establishment of what was officially called the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line. The contract was awarded to none other than James Birch. The San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line was to provide semi-monthly service on a thirty-day schedule. For this, Birch would receive $150,000 per year subsidy from the government.
In less than thirty days, Birch, the capable veteran stage man, dispatched the first mail west from San Antonio. Mules, rather than horses, were to pull the coaches and for this reason and the fact that pack mules actually carried the mail over the final 180 mile stretch from Ft. Yuma to San Diego, Birch's new venture was more commonly known as the "Jackass Mail Line". The departure dates were set for the 9th and 24th of each month.
The most difficult part of the trip had been the last 180 miles from Ft. Yuma across what is now the rich Imperial Valley north to circle the Laguna Mountains by way of Cooke's Wagon Road up rugged Vallecito Canyon to Warner's Ranch, then southward over what is now U.S. Highway 385 to San Diego.
There were 87 stations listed on the itinerary, but only three, San Antonio, El Paso, San Diego, could really be called stations. Many so called stations were merely a brush corral and an adobe hut and others were just camping places. The line employed 65 men, 50 coaches (some were ambulances), and 400 mules. Only 50 trips were made before it was downsized in December 1858.
Realized: $3,500