The Pony Express - Ogallala, Nebraska
Posted by: 
gparkes
N 41° 07.545 W 101° 43.167
14T E 271713 N 4556281
The town of Ogallala, Nebraska, before it was a town, was an intersection of many trails and rivers. This series of markers throughout town explain the history of the evolution of rivers to trails to rails to highways and finally interstate.
Waymark Code: WM856W
Location: Nebraska, United States
Date Posted: 01/30/2010
Views: 6
Marker text states:
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 following 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.”