Pony Express Historic Resource Study

INTRODUCTION

The following five chapters contain a list of 184 potential Pony Express station sites, located in seven states, stretching from St. Joseph, Missouri, to San Francisco, California. All stations associated with the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company for any period of time have been included in the text. This historical resource study of the Pony Express National Historic Trail synthesizes information from a broad base of primary and secondary sources regarding station sites. Whenever possible, the station history provided in this report includes general location, historical information, National Register of Historic Places listing date and number (NR, date, number), where available, and the current status of any buildings, or artifacts on the site.

While some stations' names, locations, and functions (home or relay station) have been concisely defined, information on others suffer from large inconsistencies in the documentation. Thus, the author has marked all stations of questionable existence or relationship with the Pony Express National Historic Trail with an asterisk (*) beside the name. Furthermore, since discrepancies also exist regarding home and relay stations, the author has made no assessment of these functions for each station. However, the text does incorporate and document other authors' points of view in relation to home versus relay station status.

In the area of geographic locations, the author makes no statement as to whether the stations are located on private, state, or public lands. Since the majority of the Pony Express stations require additional research, which includes field surveying, the author believes that the status of land will be gathered for each station during that intensive investigation process.

Through a process of consolidating a number of perspectives set forth by a variety of authors on the subject of the Pony Express stations, as well as examining some primary material, the following five chapters contain a cursory review of the history of the stations owned, operated, and used by the C.O.C. & P.P. Express Co.

Division One of the the Pony Express National Historic Trail includes twenty-six stations in the states of Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. The following chapter discusses the starting point of the Pony Express National Historic Trail at the St. Joseph Home Station, as well as the Pony Express stables and monuments associated with the enterprise. After leaving St. Joseph and crossing the Missouri River, twelve stations are located to the west in the state of Kansas. Division One then stretches only partially through Nebraska and covers thirteen additional stations. Six of the sites discussed in this chapter are currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.