Old Wire Road, which took its name from the telegraph lines running beside it after 1860, passed through the area east of Pea Ridge, providing a connection north to Springfield, Missouri, and south to Fayetteville (Washington County) and Fort Smith (Sebastian County). Before 1881, mail for Pea Ridge was dropped at Elkhorn Inn and Tavern, a stagecoach stop, and carried to the town by horseback, buggy, or wagon. The Butterfield Company bought the stage line in 1858, making the road part of the Butterfield Overland Mail trail reaching west to California.