Hollenberg Ranch and The Pony Express - E. of Washington, KS - Wagon Roads and Trails on Waymarking.com

County of marker: Washington County
Location: KS-148 & US-36, roadside park, 11 miles East of Washington
Marker Number: Not Known
Date Erected: Not Shown
Erected by: Kansas State Historical Society & Kansas Department of Transportation

Marker Text:

PONY EXPRESS
STATION

HOLLENBERG RANCH
AND THE PONY EXPRESS
Begun in 1858, the Hollenberg Ranch, four miles north and one mile east of here, served as a stop on the Oregon-California Trail until the late 1860s. Gerat and Sophia Hollenberg, German emigrants, sold food and other supplies, lodging, and draft animals to passing travelers. Settlers, freighters, soldiers, stagecoach passengers, and Pony Express riders all stopped there.

For a year and a half in 1860 and 1861, the Pony express operated like a relay race delivering mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Wiry riders, often mere boys, hurried their horses between stations that were about ten miles apart. At each station they changed to a fresh mount, and at every third station a rested rider took over. Through such teamwork the mail could cross half a continent in about a third of the time required by stagecoach. By mid-1861, however, the transcontinental telegraph was carrying messages at the speed of electricity, and the Pony Express could not compete.

Road of Trail Name: Oregon-California Trail State: Kansas County: Washington County Historical Significance: This ranch was built along the Oregon Trail. Later, it became a Pony Express Station. Years in use: 1840 - 1880 How you discovered it: Returning from a conference in Saline, Ks, in day after heavy snow, and taking US-36 through Kansas. Book on Wagon Road or Trial: The Traveler's Guide to the Pony Express Trail by Joe Bensen Traveling the Oregon Trail, 2nd (Historic Trail Guide Series) by Julie Fanselow Website Explination: http://www.kshs.org/places/hollenberg/ Why?: Westward Expansion Directions: US-36 & KS-148, turn-off to the actual ranch is this huge marker.

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