Elwood Pony Express Station - Elwood, KS
Posted by: lazyCachers
N 39° 45.052 W 094° 52.230
15S E 339750 N 4401779
Located at Fort Luxembourg on South Street just off US 36 in Elwood, Kansas.
Waymark Code: WM3ZV3
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 06/13/2008
Views: 50
The marker states, in part:
Elwood was the first Kansas station on the Pony Express between Missouri and California.
The whole text of the marker:
Elwood, first called Roseport, was established in 1856. In its heyday scores of river steamboats unloaded passengers and freight at its wharves and every 15 minutes ferry boats crossed to its Missouri rival, St. Joseph. During the 1850s thousands of emigrants outfitted here for Oregon and California. Late in 1859, Abraham Lincoln, seeking the Republican nomination, here first set foot in Kansas, and spoke in the three-story Great Western Hotel. Elwood was the first Kansas station on the Pony Express between Missouri and California. Construction of the first railroad west of the Missouri River began here in 1859. On April 23, 1860, the first locomotive, "The Albany," was ferried over and pulled up the bank by hand. Elwood's ambitions for greatness were thwarted, not by St. Joe, but by the river, which undermined the banks and washed much of the old town away.
Visit Instructions:
1) Locate and photograph a monument or memorial to the Pony Express, be it a stone or a mural or a roadside sign.
2) The standard rules apply: a photo of the goal and one of your GPS unit - no vacation photos or web downloads will be accepted.
3) Include the coordinates of the location and the name of the city or town in your log.
4) Feel free to include as much history as you'd like. Educate us!