In the mid-19th century, stagecoach lines were a primary means of moving people, mail, and supplies through the region. The U.S. government contracted with Henry Skillman for the San Antonio-El Paso Stage line in 1851, and in this area the route followed the historic Chihuahua Trail, also called the Lower Road, which was designed to carry U.S. Mail; service soon expanded to include passengers and freight. Skillman and William "Bigfoot" Wallace were among the better known drivers. In 1854, George H. Giddings took over the San Antonio to El Paso line and created a series of stage stations in the area. In 1858, he established a station near the "S" crossing of the Pecos River, with two structures of adobe, limestone, and wood, a larger building used by teamsters as a kitchen and dining room, a smaller one used as sleeping quarters, and an adobe or high pole corral with a wide gate behind them that held dozens of horses and mules; water came from a nearby hand-dug well that had formerly been a spring. In early 1862, a driver on the stage to Fort Lancaster reported that Indians had destroyed Pecos Station, and the site was abandoned. In 1869, Lt. Col. Thomas B. Hunt led a detachment past the ruins and placed them on the west bank of the Pecos, 2.5 miles from Camp Melbourne. The exact location of the remote post remained uncertain for years until archeological investigations in the early 21st century used stone foundations, cultural artifacts from the 1850s, and evidence of earlier Native American occupation to identify this isolated scene of frontier life.