While moving the mail, contractors battled numerous waterways.
Top-right: Dogsled on river barge, Yukon River, Eagle Alaska Above:Packet Chesapeake steamboat
Left: Mailboat on Rogue River, Oregon Right: Contractors with row boat
“It is quite possible that additional facilities will be provided in the very near future through . . . the horseless wagon.”—1895 Annual Reports of the Second Assistant Postmaster General
First horses and then horsepower carried Star Route contractors to their destinations. Some routes were full of risks, and contractors did not always meet their mark. But the efficiency and flexibility of today's Star Route Service is a tribute to the innovations that led the way.
