This site may have been positioned in Clay County. [91] Since the 1861 mail contract did not list Spring Ranch as a stopping point, the positive identification of Spring Ranch as a Pony Express station remains controversial. Its location between two known distant stations, Liberty Farm and Thirty-Two Mile Creek, would have made Spring Ranch a convenient place for riders to change horses. [92] A number of other sources identify this station as Lone Tree, a relay station and stage stop.
Gregory Franzwa lists Spring Ranch and Lone Tree Station separately. A town called Spring Ranch existed in the 1860s, as well as the Spring Ranch stage station. Indian raids apparently destroyed the station in August 1864. An Oregon Trail marker identifies the station site on the east side of the county road going north to Highway 74. (NPS)
Location: Road 307, Glenvil, Clay County, Nebraska; 40.437409, -98.24033
Marker Text: The original Spring Ranche, located two miles south of here on the north side of the Little Blue River, was founded about 1863. James Bainter, the first permanent settler, operated a store and inn for travelers along the Oregon-California Trail. The ranche was burned in 1864 when Lakota Sioux and their allies attacked settlements along the Little Blue. Spring Ranche was later rebuilt.
The village of Spring Ranch dates from 1870 when a post office was established south of the river. A saw mill was in operation a year later. In 1886 the townsite moved across the river, where the St. Joseph and Grand Island Railroad was being built. The village once boasted several businesses and a population of about 100, but few traces remain today.
In 1885 Spring Ranch residents Elizabeth Taylor and her brother Thomas Jones were accused of barn burning and murder. Before they could be tried, they were lynched by a mob on March 15. Taylor and Jones, along with other early settlers, are buried in the Spring Ranch Cemetery