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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
Eastern Nevada's Fort Ruby (1862-69) played a major
role in the history of transportation and communication, but also
participated in the Indian wars. In 1859 William Rogers, an assistant
Indian agent and the first white settler in Ruby Valley, built a cabin
near the southern end of the valley. It became a station for
stagecoaches on the Central Overland Mail route, the Pony Express, and a
relay station on the transcontinental telegraph line. During the Civil
War, in the fall of 1862, to protect these facilities and to control the
Gosiute and Paiute Indians, who were focusing their attacks on Overland
Mail stages, Col. Patrick E. Connor's California Volunteers founded Fort
Douglas, Utah, near Salt Lake City, and Fort Ruby in Nevada's Ruby
Valley about 3 miles west of the stage station. Troops from the fort
engaged in several skirmishes during the Gosiute War (1863). The next
year Nevada Volunteers replaced the California troops and garrisoned the
fort until 1869, when the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad,
the first transcontinental line, brought an end to stage service and
thus the need for Fort Ruby.
The site is on a privately owned ranch. The only
extant structures are two one-story log buildings, surrounded by more
modern structures. The former are the earliest extant examples of
pioneer log construction in Nevada. One of them, now used as a tool shed
and in fair condition, is palisaded, a rare example of that type of
construction. The other, in good condition, is constructed of round logs
in a horizontal position, the ends saddle notched. The site of the
overland stage and Pony Express station, 3 miles to the east, has been
marked by the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
NHL Designation: 11/05/61
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/siteb18.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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