Editing Lafayette, Colorado (section)

==Transportation==
Between 1849 and 1870, California goldseekers – followed by the grand Concord Coaches of the Overland Express and Mail Co. — traveled the Cherokee Trail, an ancient north–south trading route overlapped today by U.S. Highway 287 in Lafayette. From 1864 to 1868, the Cherokee Trail/Laramie Road was a principal travel corridor to the west and a key part of the Overland Mail and Express Co.’s 1,000-mile route, which originated in Atchison, Kansas. The Front Range portion of the Southern Route went north from Denver to LaPorte and Virginia Dale where the trail rejoined the Central Overland Route in Laramie, Wyoming.<ref name="LafHist" />

The Overland Mail and Express Co.'s 600-mile Denver to Salt Lake City Division was composed of 46 stage stations spaced every 10 to 15 miles. The stagecoach crossing at Boulder Creek north of Lafayette was at today's N. 109th Street near Brownsville, about 1/2-mile east of U.S. Highway 287. Starting in 1864, three Overland Stage Line stations in Boulder and Broomfield counties operated under the purview of Ben Holladay's Overland Mail and Express Co.: Little Thompson stage station about 2 miles north of today's Longmont, Boon's Ranch (Boulder Station) stage station at Boulder Creek, and Church's Ranch stage station (then called Child's stage station) located near today's Old Wadsworth and 105th Street in Westminster. The Burlington House in what is now Longmont became an Overland Stage Line home station a few years later.<ref name="LafHist" />

From 1866 to 1871, Lafayette and Mary Miller operated the Miller Tavern Ranch, a saloon and stage stop for the Mason & Ganow stagecoach at the former Stearns Dairy north of Dillon Road on U.S. 287, today known as the Rock Creek Farm.<ref name="LafHist" />

The Mason & Ganow stagecoach company launched on October 17, 1868, to compete with Wells Fargo and promoted daily overnight service from Denver to Cheyenne, about 100 miles. Heading north, the stagecoach left Denver at 8 a.m. and arrived in Cheyenne at 7 a.m. the next morning. Traveling south, the stagecoach left Cheyenne at 6 p.m.

Lafayette pioneers Adolf and Anna Waneka ran the two-story stage stop on Coal Creek located where today's U.S. 287 crosses Coal Creek in Lafayette but it, too, was a meal stop and not a swing station.<ref name="LafHist" />

The Rocky Mountain News for November 19, 1867, listed six stage companies operating from Denver: Wells, Fargo & Company with stages leaving daily for points east via the Platte and points west via Salt Lake City; Denver, Valmont and Boulder stage company leaving Thursdays and Saturdays; United States Express Company leaving daily for points east via Smoky Hill route; Hariman & Harmon's stage leaving for South Park each Thursday; Denver, Idaho and Georgetown Express leaving Denver Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; the Denver and Santa Fe Stage Line, leaving Denver for points south every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.<ref name="LafHist" />

Ben Holladay's Overland Mail and Express Co. was sold to Wells, Fargo & Company in 1866 for $1.8 million in cash and stocks. After the Transcontinental Railroad was completed to Cheyenne in 1867, stagecoach travel declined, and the majority of stagecoaches heading from Denver to Cheyenne carried passengers looking to catch an eastbound train.<ref name="LafHist" />

By early 1869, Wells Fargo had sold all of its stagecoach operations, including the Denver to Cheyenne run, which was acquired by John Hughes. Robert Spotswood and William McClelland bought the stage line from Hughes and continued running the Denver to Cheyenne stage until November 27, 1869.<ref name="LafHist" />