What can you tell me about the “Jackass Mail?”

What can you tell me about the “Jackass Mail?”

Mike Weirens
Sartell, MN

The “Jackass Mail” was officially the San Antonio and San Diego mail line. It was dubbed “Jackass” because in the most severe part of the journey crossing the California desert, no stages rolled. The passengers had to ride on the hurricane deck of a mule.

The route went from San Diego, through El Paso, to San Antonio. This caused one newspaperman in northern California to declare the line went “from no place through nothing to nowhere.”