Last updated: June 19, 2026
Place
Canyon Station
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
The site of Canyon Station is in Overland Canyon through the Deep Creek Mountains, Utah. It is 11.4 trail miles east of Ibapah, on the west side of Pony Express Rd/ Deep Creek Mountains Rd. Monument GPS: 40.076835 -113.845632 View from the road GPS: 40.076886 -113.844154
Significance:
Howard Egan, a Latter-day Saints pioneer and Pony Express superintendent, built Canyon Pony Express Station at the mouth of Overland Canyon, in western Utah, in 1861. After shutdown of the Pony Express in October that year, it continued serving the Overland Stage until Goshute Indians destroyed the station and killed its personnel on Aug 8, 1863.
Designation:
Historic site on the Pony Express National Historic Trail.
Amenities
1 listed
Scenic View/Photo Spot
Canyon Station did not yet exist in September 1860, when Sir Richard Burton accompanied a Pony Express rider through Utah's Deep Creek Mountains. The ride through Overland Canyon gave Burton, an experienced British army officer, an eerie sense of unease. Several express riders and other travelers recently had been attacked there by Goshute Indians.
“Nothing, certainly, could be better fitted for an ambuscade than this gorge,” wrote Burton, “with its caves and holes in snow cuts, earth drops, and lines of strata, like walls of rudely piled stone…”
About a year later, though, someone—historians point to frontiersman and Pony Express district superintendent Howard Egan—chose the mouth of spooky Overland Canyon as the site of a new Pony Express station. Canyon Station consisted of a dugout used for preparing meals, a stable, and possibly a log house. Because it was a dry site, water had to be hauled from Deep Creek, 8 miles to the west. The Pony Express occupied the site until October 1861, when the mail relay operation shut down, but the Overland Stage continued using Canyon Station for 2 more years.
In retaliation for destruction of a Goshute village by American soldiers, warriors attacked Canyon Station on Aug. 8, 1863, killing at least 5 Overland Stage emploees and soldiers and burning the station to the ground. The slain men were buried near the scene of the attack. Today a stone monument stands 190 yeards southeast of the original Canyon Station site, which became known as Burnt or Burnout Station.
Within months, the stage company rebuilt the station at the other end of Overland Canyon, about 3.5 miles southeast of Burnt Station. This second Canyon Station is also called Round Station because it includes a low, circular stone wall with gunports for defense. Today, Round Station, part of the Canyon Station story, is a Bureau of Land Management interpretive site.
To visit the two sites, from Willow Springs Station in Callao, follow Pony Express/Deep Creek Mountains Rd northwest for about 13 miles. The entrance to the second Canyon Station/Round Station interpretive site is on the left. Continue 3.5 miles to GPS coordinates 40.076886 -113.844154, on a slight curve in the road with a deep dry wash on your left. Look west across the wash to see the first Canyon Station/Burnt Station monument, standing among the sagebrush at the bottom of a mountainside where the canyon opens up. Continue north past the wash to a 2-track on the left. Drive or walk westerly along the curving track for about 200 yards to a second track that turns south. Follow it back toward the dry wash for about 379 yards to reach the monument. As the old tracks continue south from there, it overlies the original Pony Express Trail.
Site Information
Location (The site of Canyon Station is in Overland Canyon through the Deep Creek Mountains, Utah. It is 11.4 trail miles east of Ibapah, on the west side of Pony Express Rd/ Deep Creek Mountains Rd. Monument GPS: 40.076835 -113.845632 View from the road GPS: 40.076886 -113.844154)