Historical Marker · No. 700
El Dorado-Nevada House (Mud Springs)-Overland Pony Express Route in California
El Dorado, El Dorado County · California
Erected by California State Park Commission in cooperation with the James W. Marshall Chapter No. 49, E Clampus Vitus, Golden Chain Council of the Mother Lode, and the Central Overland Pony Express Trail Association, April 2, 1960, 1960
The other Pony Express plaques along this road mark the eastbound run. This one is about the mail coming the other way. Sam Hamilton changed horses at the Nevada House on April 13, 1860, carrying the first westbound mochila, which had left St. Joseph on the third and reached Sacramento that same evening. Nine days separated the two directions on the same road, and the westbound arrival is the one Sacramento celebrated. Mud Springs was a trading post and emigrant stop long before either.
What the plaque says
El Dorado (Mud Springs) Trading post, emigrant stop, and mining camp of the 1850's, this became one of the remount stations of the Central Overland Pony Express. Here at the Nevada House on April 13, 1860, Pony Rider William (Sam) Hamilton changed horses while carrying the first west-bound mail of the Pony Express from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 700 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the James W. Marshall Chapter No. 49, E Clampus Vitus, Golden Chain Council of the Mother Lode, and the Central Overland Pony Express Trail Association, April 2, 1960.
Where it stands
38.68248, -120.84868 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park — 8.6 miThe tailrace at Coloma where a carpenter found gold in January 1848 and the world came running.
More markers nearby
- El Dorado (Originally Mud Springs) — steps away
- Diamond Springs — 1.9 mi
- Placerville-Overland Pony Express Route in California — 4.0 mi
- Hangman's Tree — 4.0 mi