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From the Archives: The End of the Wire Road

  • Renee Glass
  • Oct 18, 2024
  • 4 min read

Updated: 21 hours ago

Long before I-44, Route 66, or even the Frisco Railroad, the Old Wire Road served as a major transportation corridor in southwest Missouri.


According to the National Park Service, Indigenous peoples such as the Osage traveled this route in the pursuit of game centuries before the arrival of Anglo-American settlers. European traders and explorers continued using this trail during the colonial period. In the 1840s, the Butterfield Overland Mail operated along a portion of this route between Springfield and Fort Smith, Arkansas. During the early years of the Civil War, a telegraph line connecting St. Louis to Fort Smith ran along the trail—hence the name "Wire Road." The route ran directly through the site of the Battle of Wilson's Creek and was used to move soldiers and supplies through southwest Missouri throughout the war.


By 1880, local reporters were referring to the route as the "old wire road," suggesting its telegraph line had been rendered obsolete, likely by railroad-based telegraphy. In a 1922 article for the Springfield Leader, an uncredited reporter correctly predicted that as automobiles and highways became the norm, the Old Wire Road would become a relic of an bygone era. An excerpt from that article appears below:



A postcard depicting a trace of the Old Wire Road. A faint path dirt path, littered with stones, runs through barren farmland. A ramshackle fence is in the middleground. Old farm houses, including the John Ray farmhouse, are in the background.
A trace of the Old Wire Road, photographed in the late 1950s in what is now Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. The Ray farmhouse is visible in the background. From the Postcards and Photographs collection.

[...]


That famous trail that led from Springfield to Fort Smith, through Aurora, Verona, McDowell and Cassville in Missouri, winding through some of the prettiest country in the Ozarks at the point between McDowell and Cassville, where the bed of that little terror, Flat Creek, is followed by the road, probably will never regain its lost prestige.


The Old Wire Road, so called because it was along this trail that the first interstate telegraph line between Springfield and points in Arkansas was constructed, has been famous in Southwest Missouri history. From Verona, the trail leads south through ravines, over hills and through some of the wildest scenic beauty in the Ozark country. At McDowell, which was once the county seat of Barry county, the trail strikes Flat Creek, and follows this winding stream through Cassville to Washburn. The trail crosses the creek ten times in that 12 miles between Cassville and McDowell.


There are places along this route where the road is on a shelf, with the mountain on one side and the creek on the other. There are other places where the creek and road cut across a wide valley between the mountain ranges.


This road was the scene of many skirmishes during the Civil war, and while there were no big battles between the Union and Confederate armies, the trail was almost one continual battleground throughout the war. Guerrilla warfare was waged most successfully by bands of armed men who lay in ambush on the mountainside, firing on the enemy from their places of concealment.


With the advent of the automobile and good roads, the Old Wire road is about to pass into history and will be known only to the old residents of that part of the country. For it will never again be the famous trail it was in the days before the railroad was built through southwest Missouri.


B. F. Maloney (likely actually named Ruben Fairle Maloney), an elderly man in a suit and a hat, stands next to a commemorative marker in front of the Barry County Courthouse. The marker's text reads: "Old Wire Road. Along this route a Butterfield stage carried the first overland mail through Cassville September 17, 1858. Named the Old Wire Road in 1859 at completion of the telegraph line paralleling the road to Ft. Smith, it was used in moving Union and Confederate troops."
A long-time Cassville resident, identified as "B. F. Maloney" (likely Ruben Fairle Maloney), standing next to a marker commemorating the Old Wire Road on the lawn of the Barry County Courthouse. From the Springfield News-Leader Collection.

[...]


When the state highway commission designated routes through Missouri to be built of concrete and clay bound macadam, the shortest and most direct routes between the principal cities and towns were neglected. There already is a state road heading south from Monett through Purdy and Butterfield, to Cassville, and in designating the route from Cassville to Butterfield the most direct route was chosen. The Old Wire road leads almost due north from Cassville to Verona and misses Monett by about 5 miles.


A right-of-way leading northwest from Cassville to Butterfield was selected and work already has been started in building this link in the state road. The trail of the Old Wire road, which leads through the center of Cassville, is followed nearly to the northern city limits of the town, then the state road turns to the left.


This state road is to be surfaced with gravel and later, if the plans of the road builders are followed, is to be concreted through the town. Citizens of Cassville plan to make the part of the road within the city limits one of the most beautiful boulevards in any town of its size in the state.


The stream of automobile traffic has changed its course and will now flow over the new route while the Old Wire road will be followed only by those seeking the scenic beauty of the Ozarks.


A remnant of the Wire Road running alongside the John Ray House at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. The road is composed of dirt and gravel. At right, dried grass grows about knee-high. In the background, the John Ray farmhouse is visible at right. The house has white siding and a distinctive front porch.
A remnant of the Wire Road running alongside the John Ray farmhouse at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. Photograph by Michael Price, Show Me Missouri collection.


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Note

This blog article was originally published October 18, 2024 by Renee Glass. It was republished with introductory text and minor edits February 7, 2026 by Brandon Broughton.


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