There is some confusion on the exact location of Gilman's Station. Musetta Gilman tells the story of the site, run by her husband's ancestors, in Pump on the Prairie. Nonetheless, most sources generally agree on the identity of Gilman's Ranch as a relay station and a stage stop listed on the 1861 mail contract. (NPS)
Government Creek Station (N40 05 08.0 W112 41 07.0) (NM)
Government Creek Station site (BLM photo 1978) Location: SE1/4SE1/4 Section 25, Township 8 South, Range 8 West, Salt Lake Meridian, about 8 ¼ miles from Lookout one crosses Government Creek. Also called Davis’ House and Government Wash.
Note: point plotted at the Lombard Ferry Oregon Train Interpretive Center
Located 15 miles from Big Timber Station and 20 miles from Ham’s Fork Station on the west bank of Green River above the mouth of Big Sandy Creek. McCarthy was Station Tender. (Expedition Utah)
Camp Station/Grub(b)s Well Station (N39 37 24.8 W116 28 33.4)
Grubb’s Well is commonly mentioned in the published lists of Pony Express stations, and is also listed with Overland Stage stations, however there was no station at the site in the fall of 1860.
Sources generally agree on the identification of Guittard's Station as a Pony Express and stage stop. In late 1860, Burton saw the Pony Express rider arrive at Guittard's Station. Burton described the station as a "clump of board houses on the far side of a shady, well-wooded creek—the Vermillion, a tributary of the Big Blue River, so called from its red sandstone bottom, dotted with granitic [sic] and porphyritic boulders."
Located 20 miles from Green River Station and 20 miles from Millersville Station at the west boundary of the present day town of Granger (where Ham’s Fork flows into the Green River). David Louis was Station Tender. Michael Martin’s Station was between Green River Station and Ham’s Fork Station and Church Buttes Station was between Ham’s Fork Station and Millersville Station. The Granger Pony Express Station was located off US30 just west of Little America on I80. Ruins and a monument now mark the location.
Several sources identify Williams Station as a Pony Express stop. Roy Bloss also lists the station as Honey Lake Smith's. According to one source, J. 0. Williams and his two brothers managed station operations until May 7, 1860, when Indians killed J. O.'s brothers and three other men. These deaths initiated the Pyramid Lake Indian War. The exact location of this early station has not been determined. (NPS)
The point originally plotted is half way between Carson Sink and the reported location for Hooten Wells Station (39.281700134277 -118.90571594238)
This site was presumably located one and one-half miles northeast of Lowell in Kearney County and for a time served as a relay station for the Pony Express. A number of authors use a variety of names to describe the same station including Hook's, Hook's Station, Hook's Ranch, Kearney Station, Dogtown, Valley City, Valley Station, Junction City, Hinshaw's Ranch, and Omaha Junction. Whichever name is associated with this station, M. H. Hook managed the station operations at the site. This station was the last one under the jurisdiction of St. Joseph-Fort Kearney Division Superintendent E. A.
Rock ruins (including the Strong house and parts of the stone corral wall) remain 12 east of US 95 alternate at a point 2 miles south of Buckland’s Station. Hooten Wells was probably used by the Pony Express for its last few months and later during freight and staging efforts. The site of Desert Station is located near Hooten Wells on the Rafter D Ranch. This station site was not used since August 1861, when the route was moved further to the north.
(Expedition Utah)
The Horse Creek Station site is most likely located on the west bank of Horse Creek, about two miles northeast of Lyman, in Scotts Bluff County. The station served as a stop for the Pony Express. Several sources identify Horse Creek as a station, which, according to Mattes, possibly also served at one time as the site of Joseph Robidoux's second trading post. (NPS)
Located 14 miles from Willow Springs Station and 12 miles from Sweetwater Pony Express Station on east bank of Horse Creek and just north of the old Emigrant Road.
(Expedition Utah)
This site, known as Horseshoe or Horseshoe Creek, served as the last station in Division Two of the Pony Express. Division Superintendent Joseph A. Slade lived at Horseshoe Creek with his wife, Molly, and family. (NPS)
Bishop and Henderson, as well as the mail contract of 1861, identify Ice Slough or Ice Springs as a C.O.C. & P.P. Express Co. station between Three Crossings and Warm Springs. Other sources do not list the slough as a station, but they mention its nearly year-round ice as a well-known landmark. Franzwa locates Ice Spring and Ice Slough separately in his Oregon Trail maps, but he does not list either site as a Pony Express station. (NPS)
Jacob's Well is noted by many sources as a Pony Express station. The station did not exist when Richard Burton passed through the area on October 8, 1860, but it probably went up a short time later, or as part of Overland Mail Company contract. General Frederick Jacobs and a crew of men dug a well and erected a small stone structure that served as a stop for both Pony Express riders and the Overland Mail Company line. Very little, if any, evidence of the station remains at the site today.
Experts on the Pony Express trail in this area, designate Kennekuk as the first home station from St. Joseph. Most other sources agree on the name but not the exact location of this station. Its location has been placed at from 39 to 44 miles from the beginning of the trail. The stage route from Atchison and the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Kearney military road combined with the trail near Kennekuk and brought much traffic to the settlement in the early 1860s. Tom Perry and his wife ran the relay station and served meals to travelers passing through.
This relay station stood on Delaware Creek (also called Big Grasshopper or Plum Creek) about twelve miles west of Horton, Kansas, and was generally known as Kickapoo or Goteschall. [24] Both the station and the stone Presbyterian mission, a nearby landmark, existed on the Kickapoo Indian Reservation. Noble Rising, a Kansas pioneer and surveyor, maintained the station with W. W. Letson.
This site is reportedly about ten miles northwest of Hebron, in Thayer County. Kiowa served as a stop for both the Pony Express and for both the L. & P.P. Express Co. and C.O.C. & P.P. Express Co. stagecoaches. Jim Douglas managed the station operations. (NPS)
Note: Mapped is a point 10 miles NW of Hebron
It is located 15 miles from Elk Horn Station and 10 miles from Bed Tick Station. Also, a creek and town in Converse County, Wyoming, named for La Bonte (Labonte, LaBonte), an early French trapper. He was a trapper with “Uncle Dick” Woolston’s party in 1838 was killed in Utah. The Indians after killing this noted character, cut flesh from the bones and ate it. La Bonte belonged in Wyoming and had lived for a number of years on the North Platte in what is now Converse County.
The 1861 Overland Mail Company contract also listed Lapierelle as a passenger/mail station stop, which Bishop and Henderson listed as Lapierelle (La Prele)—a station between Bed Tick and Box Elder. Franzwa also identifies a La Prele Station on his maps, but he does not specifically cite it as a Pony Express site. (NPS)
This site is generally acknowledged to be located on the north bank of the Little Blue River, a half-mile northeast of Deweese, in Clay County. In 1859, 0. Allen, in his Guide Book and Map to the Gold Fields of Kansas and Nebraska mentioned Liberty Farm as a U. S. mail station. Allen stated it was at the "Jct. of Ft. Riley Road 19 miles from Oak Grove, U. S. mail station No. 12, 1 1/2 miles east of this place." Sources generally agree on its identity as a Pony Express home station, and that it was then managed by James Lemmons and Charles Emory. L. & P.P. Express Co. and C.O.C.
Note: Plotted on Muddy Creek
Raymond and Mary Settle, noted historians and experts on the Pony Express, and one other source identify Little Muddy as the next station west of Deer Creek Station. The stone station, erected without mortar, reportedly stood ten miles west of Deer Creek. However, its exact location has not been identified. (NPS)
Bishop and Henderson, the U.S. mail contract of 1861, and Pierson identified Little Sandy as a relay station between Dry Sandy and Big Sandy Station. Little Sandy Creek, according to Richard Burton, was near the junction of the Great Salt Lake Road and on the road to Fort Hall, Idaho. (NPS)
Sources identify Log Chain as a Pony Express relay station and a stop on the overland stage route. Noble H. Rising, the stationkeeper, maintained a twenty four by forty foot log house and seventy foot barn. Log Chain Station stood near Locknane Creek, also called Locklane and Muddy Creek on some maps. The origin of the name "Log Chain" is uncertain. Stories exist about pulling wagons across the creek's sandy bed with log chains, which may be one reason for its name. The station's name may also be a corruption of Locklane, the creek's name.
The 1861 mail contract listed this station as Point Lookout, and other sources also identify the site as Lookout Pass and Jackson's. A Mr. Jackson served as stationkeeper at Point Lookout, which saw Pony Express operations halted in June and July of 1860 because of the Pyramid Lake War. In 1876 Horace and Libby Rockwell lived in a log house at the site, which Fike and Headley suggest had possibly served as the station. In 1979, the Rockwells' pet cemetery, enclosed by a metal fence, still existed south of the station site.
The identity and location of Machette's Station remains controversial. Local tradition places the site on the Williams' Upper 96 Ranch, four miles east of Fort McPherson in Lincoln County, Nebraska.