Sources generally agree about Seneca Station's location and identity as an early Pony Express home station, also known as the the Smith Hotel. John Smith managed station operations at the hotel, located on the corner of present-day Fourth and Main Streets. Smith entered the hotel business in 1858, and his two- story white hotel also served as a restaurant, school, and residence. Additional sources also identify Seneca as an overland stage station. (NPS)

“Richland,” a town mentioned in guide-books, having disappeared, we drove for breakfast to Seneca, a city consisting of a few shanties, mostly garnished with tall square lumber fronts, ineffectually, especially when the houses stand one by one, masking the diminutiveness of the buildings behind them. The land, probably in prospect of a Pacific Railroad, fetched the exaggerated price of $20 an acre, and already a lawyer has “hung out his shingle” there.

The City of the Saints, page 22