In September 1858, the Butterfield Overland Mail Company established stations along its route from Missouri to California at intervals of about fifteen to twenty miles for changing horses, with some also providing food and lodging. Before December 1859, the Tule River Station offered only a change of horses. At that time, a new station was built and opened just east of this site on the south side of the Tule River. In 1859, Charles D. Putnam and his wife, Delphene, bought the southeast one-quarter of Section 36 and built the new station. Charles Putnam had been an agent for the Butterfield O.M. Co., first at Packwood Station ten miles southeast of Visalia. The Visalia Paper reported in December 1859 that subscribers on the Tule River would receive their papers at Putnam's house on the south side of the river, and in January that the key to the mail bags for the Tule River post office had been received and the office would be operated at the house of Charles D. Putnam on the south side of the Tule River. Charles Putnam and R. Porter Putnam were friends but not related, and Porter later moved to Tule River to lay out his village; the two Putnams caused confusion among historians. The Visalia Paper addressed that confusion by identifying Tule River Station as kept by Mr. E.D. Putnam and lady, the only place on the road between Visalia and Linns Valley where travelers could get a square meal. Charles and Delphene Putnam kept the station from 1859 to 1866.