This site, which served as a relay station for the Pony Express, presumably was near Box Elder Creek, two miles south and one mile west of present North Platte, in Lincoln County, Nebraska. Cold Springs Station was also listed on the 1861 Overland Mail Company contract.  Mattes and Henderson note some confusion between Cold Springs and Jack Morrow's Ranch, also called "Junction House," twelve miles from Cottonwood Springs.  Based upon material in The Paul and Helen Henderson Oregon Trail Collection, it is possible that the well-known Morrow's store and trading post served as both a Pony Express and stage station.  (NPS)

From Personal Correspondence:

My family has owned this farm since 1900, and I have extensively studied it's history. There is a raised mound several feet high at the location I have marked, about 20 ft across, which was pointed out to my great-grandfather at the time of purchase as the remains of the sod station building. Local historians now gone knew it was there, and used to come metal detect for buttons, shells, etc, that helped them determine where a road ranch building, blacksmith shop, and corrals may have been. Three years ago, the Nebraska Game and Parks also acknowledged that it had been on our farm, and had some of their geologists do some work there as well.

Box Elder Creek was an old name for what is now called Fremont Slough. You can see in the satellite image of the map that there is a pond in what used to be a loop of the Fremont Slough. Cold Springs can still be seen from the bank as a clean, sandy spot near the south-east corner of the island.

https://visitnorthplatte.com/directory-posts/cold-springs/ This marker is beside Walker Road to the North.

The oft used description saying that there is confusion as to the location of the station is unfortunate and I don't believe the original authors meant that THEY were confused about it, just that some people were. Jack Morrow's station was about 4 miles east of Cold Springs, up against the hills at the south edge of the valley, at least a mile from Box Elder Creek. Jack Morrow was a terrible scoundrel who hired the Indians to rob wagon trains of their oxen, mules, and supplies, then hiding their loot in the canyons behind the store. Then Mr. Morrow would sell these stolen goods to the NEXT wagons that were robbed, conveniently just before they reached his place. When word got around, the wagons trains tried to sneak past as far away from the hills as possible, so then Mr. Morrow dug an impassible trench from the river to his quarters, forcing the wagons through his yard (and past the Indians.) The stagecoach and mail companies would have wanted no more to do with him than
other travelers. Note: Although the Jack Morrow station is gone, the trench is still there. Until recently, where East State Farm Rd crosses the trench, the roadbed had not been filled in and the dip down and back up again was severe enough to frequently cause my siblings to get carsick.

Molly Nightingale
Madrid, NE

I want to add a correction to my earlier comment. I was mistaken about the Fremont Slough being called "Box Elder Creek". Box Elder Creek was just west of Ft. McPherson, coming out of Box Elder Canyon. There was a road ranch there.

Submitted By: Molly Nightingale