Pony Express Historic Resource Study

WYOMING

54. COLD SPRINGS/SPRING RANCH/TORRINGTON STATION

A number of sources identify Cold Springs as a Pony Express station, [96] and give the location of this site as being about two miles southeast of Torrington, Wyoming. [97] It should be noted that the site of this station also served as the grounds for the signing of the Horse Creek Treaty. [98] A French-Canadian trader named Reynal managed operations at Spring Ranch with his Indian wife and daughter. Pawnees had held him prisoner in his younger days as a trader and later adopted him as a tribal son. [99] It should be noted that Loving and Bloss list Torrington as a separate station after Cold Springs/Spring Ranch. [100] However, since Cold Springs possibly existed two miles southeast of the town of Torrington, the settlement's name may serve as another name for the Cold Springs Station.

55. VERDLING'S RANCH/BORDEAUX/BEDEAU'S RANCH/FORT BENARD STATION

According to Merrill Mattes, Verdling's Ranch Station is probably eight miles from Fort Laramie and two miles west of Lingle, Wyoming. [101] James Bordeaux (spelled various ways), probably a French-Canadian, managed a trading post/store at the station and his association with the site was responsible for some of the many names for this station. [102] Other sources also list Verdling's Ranch or Bedeau's Ranch as a station. [103]

56. FORT LARAMIE STATION

Sources generally agree on the identity of a Pony Express station at Fort Laramie. [104] However, the exact location of the station at or near Fort Laramie remains unknown. Nevertheless, the well-known fort's distance from stations at Sand Point and Verling's Ranch makes the area just west of the post a logical station site. [105] Fort Laramie's adobe-stone sutler's store, which still exists, housed a post office in the 1850s, 1870s, and 1880s. Its status during the Pony Express era remains unknown. 106

57. NINE MILE/SAND POINT/WARD'S/CENTRAL STAR STATION

This site is nine miles west of Fort Laramie. [107] Sources identify this station by several names, including Nine Mile Station, Sand Point, Ward's, and Central Star. [108] Sand Point served as a both relay station for the Pony Express and stage lines. [109] According to Gregory Franzwa, in the 1840s, Ward and Guerrier operated the Sand Point Trading Post at the site, and then in the 1850s, Jules E. Coffee, managed a stage station here. As late as 1990, a Pony Express and stage station marker identified the site area. [110]

58. COTTONWOOD STATION*

Several sources identify Cottonwood as a station between Nine Mile Station (Ward's) and Horseshoe Creek. [111] However, Helen Henderson asserts that there were two Cottonwood Stations in the area. According to Henderson, the oldest of the two stations, which was one-half mile from the Badger railroad station, served as the Pony Express station. Cottonwood Creek is often mentioned in diaries and journals of pioneers and military men, as well as the itineraries of stage and Pony Express routes. [112]

59. HORSESHOE CREEK/HORSESHOE STATION

This site, known as Horseshoe or Horseshoe Creek, served as the last station in Division Two of the Pony Express. Division Superintendent Joseph A. Slade lived at Horseshoe Creek with his wife, Molly, and family. [113] Several sources identify Horseshoe Creek as a Pony Express station. [114]