The Pony Express
The Pony Express operated for only eighteen months, from April 1860 until October, 1861, delivering mail between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California. It ceased operating when the transcontinental telegraph line was completed. During its brief existence, the Pony Express helped connect the rest of the nation with the distant West Coast, carrying news about the war clouds gathering between North and South and the election of President Abraham Lincoln.
The Pony Express route spanned some 1,823 miles, with stations located twelve to fifteen miles apart. In Nebraska the route mostly followed the Oregon Trail of the 1840s along the Little Blue, Platte, South Platte, and North Platte Rivers. Three Pony Express stations were established near present-day Ogallala: Alkali Lake, Gill’s (also called Sand Hill), and Diamond Springs.
Sand Hill Station, also called Gill’s Station, was of sod construction and was across the river from Ogallala. In 1865, Frank Young found it occupied by soldiers and it looked “as comfortless as a Siberian picture in a story-book.”
Marker is on North Spruce Street near West Second Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
