Historical Marker · No. 698
Fifteen Mile House-Overland Pony Express Route in California
Rancho Cordova, Sacramento County · California
Erected by The California State Park Commission in cooperation with the Sacramento County Historical Society, Fern Parlor No. 123 Native Daughters of the Golden West, and the Central Overland Pony Express Trail Association, April 2, 1960
The road named its buildings by how far out they stood. Five Mile House, this one, Twelve Mile House further up the grade: an address system for a road that had no addresses, and the names outlasted the traffic. Henry Deterding had been running a stage stop here for three years when the Pony Express made it the second remount in 1860. Hamilton changed ponies and rode on for Mormon Tavern. Deterding's name is on nothing. The mileage is.
What the plaque says
Fifteen Mile House Owned and operated from 1857 as a stage station by Henry F. W. Deterding, this was the site of the second remount station of the Central Overland Pony Express during March-July 1860. Here on April 4, 1860, Sam (Bill) Hamilton with the first eastward mail of the Pony Express changed ponies, with Mormon Tavern as his next stop. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 698 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the Sacramento County Historical Society, Fern Parlor No. 123, Native Daughters of the Golden West, and the Central Overland Pony Express Trail Association, April 2, 1960
Where it stands
38.58980, -121.26195 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Sacramento — 13 miThe Gold Rush river port that became the state capital, and jacked itself ten feet into the air to stop drowning.
- Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park — 26 miThe tailrace at Coloma where a carpenter found gold in January 1848 and the world came running.