Last updated: September 12, 2026
Place
Overland City (Old Julesburg)
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
Colorado Welcome Center is at 20934 County Rd 28, Julesburg. GPS 40.9666972222, -102.2511055556
Significance:
Overland Station, originally named Julesburg, was the only Pony Express home station in Colorado (1860-1861). It also served as a stagecoach station.
Designation:
Historic site on the California and Pony Express National Historic Trails.
MANAGED BY:
Amenities
15 listed
Benches/Seating, Cellular Signal, Food/Drink - Coffee, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information - Maps Available, Information - Ranger/Staff Member Present, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV, Pets Allowed, Picnic Shelter/Pavilion, Picnic Table, Restroom, Scenic View/Photo Spot, Sewage Dump Station - Boat/RV, Water - Drinking/Potable
Julesburg, Colorado, may have been the roughest, toughest town—actually, “towns,” as there were several Julesburgs—in the West. It had it all: the Pony Express, the Overland Stage, the California Trail, a gang of robbers, a blood feud between gunmen, Indian attacks, and a short stint as a railroad Hell-on-Wheels camp. Each time Julesburg—briefly called Overland City—died from violence or economic disaster, it sprouted anew in a different place. Today, the South Platte River Trail Scenic Byway follows a 19-mile driving loop with 11 interpretive stops that explore this remarkable history.
In the early 1850s, trapper Jules Beni built a trading post on the south side of the South Platte River near a ford used by Plains tribes. His prosperous post at the Upper Crossing attracted wagon trains, more businesses, and a stage station. Named for Beni, this settlement is now called Julesburg 1.
The stage company made Beni its station manager but soon suspected him of stealing company livestock and leading a gang of robbers. The Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Company, parent company to the Pony Express, brought in infamous gunslinger Jack Slade to replace Beni and to prepare for the April 3, 1860, Pony Express launch. Three weeks before the first ride, Beni ambushed Slade with a shotgun.
Slade survived and returned to run the stage and Pony Express station, which by all accounts, he did successfully. Beni fled, vowing to return and “finish the job,” but in August 1861 met his end in Wyoming—either at Slade’s hands or on Slade’s orders. [See Jules Beni (U.S. National Park Service).]
A year later, Slade was fired for drunkenness, despite his effective work for the Pony Express and various stage companies. Vigilantes hanged him for repeated violent disturbances in Virginia City, Montana, in 1864.
The Pony Express shut down in November 1861. Butterfield Overland Mail Co. took over the stage operation in 1862 and renamed the station Overland City, in an attempt to improve its image. However, the original name clung to the settlement in common usage.
On February 2, 1865, some 1,200 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors burned Julesburg in retaliation for the Sand Creek Massacre. [See Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service).]
Julesburg 2 was founded the next year, 4 miles east of the original site, but it failed economically. In 1867 residents moved north of the river to establish Julesburg 3 along the route of the transcontinental railroad, then under construction. Called the “Wickedest City in America,” Julesburg 3 was a violent “Hell-on-Wheels” camp of United Pacific rail workers and assorted troublemakers. It died 6 months later when the railroad and its crowd of rowdies moved on to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
In 1881, a railroad branch line 5 miles east offered another fresh start. Julesburg 4, today a farming community of about 1,300 residents, grew at that location and remains the modern incarnation of the storied town.
Site Information
Location (Colorado Welcome Center is at 20934 County Rd 28, Julesburg. GPS 40.9666972222, -102.2511055556)