Last updated: June 20, 2026
Place
Deep Creek Station
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
58 N Ibapah Co Rd, Ibapah, UT GPS interpretive monument 40.0375333333, -113.9838166667 GPS 1934 monument 40.0297624 -113.9866983
Significance:
Maj. Howard Egan, who arrived in Utah in 1847 as a guide and bodyguard for Brigham Young, developed a ranch and mail station at Deep Creek in western Utah in 1858-59. His station later served the Pony Express – Egan was a division superintendent for that operation—the Overland Stage, and the transcontinental telegraph.
Designation:
Historic site on the Pony Express National Historic Trail.
MANAGED BY:
Private
Amenities
3 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV
Maj. Howard Egan, a prominent Latter-day Saint pioneer who earned his military rank in the Church’s Nauvoo Legion, pioneered much of the mail and stage route across central Nevada. In 1858 or 1859, he established a ranch on Deep Creek in what is now western Utah, homeland of the Goshute people. During 1860-1861, the ranch hosted a home station for the Pony Express, and Egan—acting as a division superintendent—oversaw stations between Salt Lake City and Roberts Creek, Nev.
Deep Creek Station also supported the Overland Stage. English adventurer Sir Richard Burton, whose stagecoach stopped there in 1861, described the site as consisting of “two huts and a station-house, and a large and respectable-looking building of unburnt brick, surrounded by fenced fields, water-courses, and stacks of good adobe.” Egan’s ranch was a thriving enterprise, producing hay, grain, mutton, and beef to supply other stations along the route. Burton noted that the field hands and station workers “were not wanting in kindness,” providing him and fellow travelers with food and hospitality. However, he observed, “the station was dirty to the last degree; the flies suggested the Egyptian plague, they could be brushed from the walls in thousands.”
Completion of the transcontinental telegraph in October 1861 made the Pony Express obsolete, and a telegraph repeater station soon replaced the Pony operation at Deep Creek. Egan then worked for the overland mail and supplied hay, grain, and meat to stations along the line until 1869, when the transcontinental railroad was completed.
The old Pony Express and stage station is long gone, but in the unincorporated community of Ibapah (Goshute, meaning “clay-colored water” or perhaps “deep-down water”), a large monument provides historical information about the area. It stands along the main highway in front of the elementary school. From there, continue south on Willow Rd for 0.7 mile to find a 1934 limestone monument among willows on the left at a sharp curve where the road turns west.
Site Information
Location (58 N Ibapah Co Rd, Ibapah, UT GPS interpretive monument 40.0375333333, -113.9838166667 GPS 1934 monument 40.0297624 -113.9866983)