Last updated: August 22, 2026
Place
Rock Creek Station State Historical Park
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
Rock Creek Station State Historical Park, 57426 710th Rd, Fairbury, Neb. Entrance GPS: 40.117051 -97.063740
Significance:
Supply station on the emigrant trails & a Pony Express Station. Wild Bill Hickok, working as a Pony Express stock tender, shot a man there in 1861 during a dispute over a debt.
Designation:
Certified Site; Historic site on the California, Oregon, and Pony Express NHTs.
MANAGED BY:
Amenities
17 listed
Benches/Seating, Electrical Hookup - Boat/RV, Fire Pit, Gifts/Souvenirs/Books, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Hitching Post/Corral, Information - Ranger/Staff Member Present, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV, Picnic Shelter/Pavilion, Picnic Table, Playground, Restroom, Scenic View/Photo Spot, Showers, Tent Campsites, Water - Drinking/Potable
Rock Creek Station, near present-day Fairbury, Nebraska, was established in 1857 as a “road ranch”—a resupply point for overland emigrants traveling the Oregon and California trails. The wheels of their wagons cut some 1,600 feet of deep ruts that still scar the hillside near the park visitor center.
Two years later, David McCanles purchased the station and built a toll bridge over steep-banked Rock Creek, collecting 10 to 50 cents per wagon for passage. In 1861, McCanles sold or leased part of the property to Russell, Majors, & Waddell, the parent company of the Pony Express and the Overland Stage. Rock Creek became a stagecoach stop and a Pony Express relay station where riders changed horses. Twenty-three-year-old James Butler Hickok found employment there, tending the stock.
On July 12, 1861, McCanles, his 11-year-old son, Monroe, and 2 other men went to Rock Creek Station to demand an overdue property payment from the station manager. When the argument grew heated, Hickok intervened and shot the unarmed McCanles to death. He wounded McCanles’s companions, who were then killed by others at the station. Monroe McCanles, who witnessed his father’s death, escaped and fled to the family home 3 miles away. At trial, a justice of the peace acquitted Hickok and 2 co-defendants on grounds of self-defense. Monroe McCanless was not allowed to testify.
Fable-spinning about the Rock Creek incident, casting “Wild Bill” Hickok as a hero single-handedly facing down a brutal gang, helped build his reputation as a gunfighter and make him a legend of the Old West.
Rock Creek Station continued to serve the Pony Express until that operation shut down in November 1861. It served as a home station for the Overland Stage until 1867.
Learn more about the McCanles shooting, the Pony Express, and life at Rock Creek Station at the site visitor center, which is open mid-April through mid-October. The visitor center museum charges a modest admission fee.
Site Information
Location (Rock Creek Station State Historical Park, 57426 710th Rd, Fairbury, Neb. Entrance GPS: 40.117051 -97.063740)
More Site Information
Pony Express National Historic Trail
California National Historic Trail
Oregon National Historic Trail
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The Rock Creek Station was once a popular stage stop for trail travelers and also served as a Pony Express station. Today, the state historical park welcomes visitors to enjoy 350 acres of prairie hilltops, timber-studded creek bottoms, and rugged ravines. The park’s visitor center displays numerous artifacts that piece together more than a century of visitors, from trail travelers to the notorious gunfighter “Wild Bill” Hickock. Managed by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, outdoornebraska.gov.