LITTLE ROCK—The Butterfield Stagecoach will return as the symbol of a northwest Arkansas town after a legal battle over who owned the refurbished heirloom.

The Arkansas Supreme Court sided Thursday with the city of Lowell, which wanted possession of the coach named after a mail route from the state’s frontier days. Ray Dotson of Ozark Mountain Carriages claimed he owned the stagecoach after showing a handwritten agreement he said the city’s former mayor signed, deeding the symbol to him after arranging restoration work for it.

The city bought the coach in 2004 from Dotson for $16,500, in hopes of using it as a symbol of the city’s history along the Butterfield Overland Trail. The trail, predating the Pony Express, connected St. Louis with San Francisco via a 2,812-mile beaten path that ran through northwest Arkansas to Fort Smith.

Two years after buying the stagecoach, Lowell made an agreement with Dotson to refurbish it. The city paid Dotson $10,000 for the work, but when the carriage returned from Missouri, he kept it.

Dotson argued that the city of 5,000 people owed him $28,248 for renovation, storage and display of the stagecoach. Dotson said then-Mayor Phil Biggers agreed to give him the stagecoach in lieu of paying the costs, signing a handwritten “memorandum of understanding.”

In their decision Thursday, justices affirmed a ruling by Benton County Circuit Judge John R. Scott that awarded the coach to Lowell. The high court noted that Arkansas law requires that all contracts and lease agreements by mayors and city clerks be approved by a majority vote of the city council.

“The record in this case is devoid of any resolution of the city of Lowell city council authorizing Dotson’s private usage of the stagecoach,” the court’s opinion read.

Even during the legal battle, the stagecoach continued to be a standard feature of northwest Arkansas parades. A judge allowed the coach out for Lowell’s Mudtown Days festival in 2007. Dotson, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in Springdale, used a replica of the coach as a campaign vehicle this summer in the annual parade for the Rodeo of the Ozarks festival.

Dotson did not return a request for comment Thursday after receiving a copy of the court’s decision. Tom Kieklak, Lowell’s contract city attorney, said the maroon and gold stagecoach had been in city custody since the lower court decision. City workers soon will adorn the stagecoach with Christmas lights.

“The whole time, we felt it’s been a real shame that we had to access the courts just to preserve public property,” Kieklak said.

However, the lawyer acknowledged he’s been the source of many jokes in legal circles since taking on the modern-day rustling case.

“Get along little dogies,” he said, chuckling.