Hollenberg Ranch and the Pony Express

Gerat H. Hollenberg had crossed the world before settling here. Born in Hanover on December 19, 1823, he went to California in the gold rush of 1849, went to Australia with a mining party, returned to New York and started a ranch on the Black Vermillion in 1857. In May 1858 he married and brought his wife to Washington County, where he called his place Cottonwood. He laid out the town of Hanover in 1869. Sailing for his native country in poor health, he died at sea on July 1, 1874 and was buried in the ocean.

What the plaque says

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. Erected by Kansas State Historical Society & Kansas Department of Transportation

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rock Creek Station State Historical Park — 21 mi
  A stage and Pony Express station on the trail southeast of Fairbury where James Hickok killed David McCanles in July 1861, with the court papers that cleared him, and deep wagon ruts.

More markers nearby

• Hollenberg Ranch Pony Express Station — 4.1 mi
• Marysville — 13 mi
• The Oketo Cutoff — 14 mi
• Alcove Springs & the Oregon Trail — 16 mi