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.