Last updated: August 20, 2026
Place
Friday's Station
Photo/Vince Migliori
Quick Facts
Location:
Historic Friday’s Station: Edgeline, Nevada -- East side of US050/Lake Tahoe Blvd between Kingsbury Grade and Lake Parkway but best viewed from US-50 north of Lake Parkway, to the right as heading eastbound – no turnout. GPS 38.965676 -119.935775 Nardone’s granite marker: Edgewood, Nevada – Northwest corner of the intersection of US-50/Lake Tahoe Blvd and Lake Parkway, in landscaped area under a pine tree to the right of sign for Edgewood Tahoe Resort. On right as traveling west on Lake Parkway or westbound on US-50. GPS 38.9641166667, -119.9390833333 Avard Fairbanks Pony Express statue and Pony Express commemorative plaques: At entrance of Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, 15 US-50, Stateline, Nevada – on right as traveling eastbound. GPS 38.9603 -119.9410833333
Significance:
Friday’s Station was a Pony Express home station (1860-1861), the westernmost station in Nevada and the home station of “Pony” Bob Haslam, who is credited with the fastest run and longest ride by a single Pony rider. The station included an inn that served travelers on the Carson Route of the California Trail.
Designation:
Historic site on the Pony Express and California NHTs.
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
Amenities
3 listed
Cellular Signal, Food/Drink - Restaurant/Table Service, Scenic View/Photo Spot
Friday’s Station, at Edgewood, Nevada, served the Pony Express, 2 stagecoach lines, and countless travelers on the Carson Route of the California Trail. The 1860 inn at the site is a California Historical Landmark (even though it is in Nevada) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
As the Pony Express began operations in April 1860, partners “Friday” Burke and James Small contracted for use of their one-room stagecoach station, located at the top of Kingsbury Grade, as a Pony remount station. They soon added a 2 ½-story inn that could house 25 travelers plus stage drivers for the Pioneer State stage line and the Wells Fargo Express. That stately white building still stands on private land beside present-day US-50, little changed since Pony Express days.
Friday’s Station is notable for its association with famed rider “Pony Bob” Haslam. As an old man in 1908, Haslam told an interviewer of making a record-breaking, 380-mile round-trip ride from his home station at Friday’s in May 1860, at the outbreak of the Pyramid Lake War. He described carrying the mail mochila for another rider too scared to do his job, narrowly evading war parties, and discovering Pony stations sacked and burned along the route. His would be the longest and fastest ride in Pony Express history.
Friday’s Station basks in the reflected glow of Pony Bob’s fame, but historical research casts serious doubt on his account. Curiously, no newspapers reported his story in 1860, though it would have been front page, national news. In fact, Haslam’s epic ride was not reported at all until almost 50 years after the Pony Express shut down and anyone who could vouch for him was dead—and then he got some key names and facts wrong. Most significantly, researcher Joe Nardone determined that Friday’s, which Pony Bob claimed was his home station where he started and ended his ride, was a remount station, never a Pony Express home station. However, it was a home station for Wells Fargo’s separate and later horseback mail run between Virginia City and Placerville from 1862 to 1865, and Haslam did ride for that operation. So: was Pony Bob confusing faded memories of long ago, or was he spinning yarns to bring himself celebrity and sell books?
Home station or not, Friday’s is still a significant part of Pony Express history. The Friday’s Station inn can be glimpsed at a distance from US-50 north of Lake Parkway. A granite monument with historical information stands at the intersection of US-50 and Lake Parkway, but it is not accessible to pedestrians and there is no parking along the highway. A larger-than-life statue of a Pony rider and his mount, with 2 commemorative plaques embedded in the base, stands in front of Harrah’s Lake Tahoe casino on US-50 through Stateline.
Site Information
Location (Historic Friday’s Station: Edgeline, Nevada -- East side of US050/Lake Tahoe Blvd between Kingsbury Grade and Lake Parkway but best viewed from US-50 north of Lake Parkway, to the right as heading eastbound – no turnout. GPS 38.965676 -119.935775
Nardone’s granite marker: Edgewood, Nevada – Northwest corner of the intersection of US-50/Lake Tahoe Blvd and Lake Parkway, in landscaped area under a pine tree to the right of sign for Edgewood Tahoe Resort. On right as traveling west on Lake Parkway or westbound on US-50. GPS 38.9641166667, -119.9390833333 Avard Fairbanks Pony Express statue and Pony Express commemorative plaques: At entrance of Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, 15 US-50, Stateline, Nevada – on right as traveling eastbound. GPS 38.9603 -119.9410833333 )