New Pass Station

When John Butterfield's Overland Mail began running the central route between Salt Lake City and Genoa in 1861, this stage stop's stone walls were roofed with bundles of willow. The spring here was too poor to drink, so Division Superintendent Thomas Plain's ranch a mile west kept the horses and travelers watered. The transcontinental railroad doomed the stage line: Wells Fargo bought Butterfield out in 1866 and shut the central route down by February 1869. The low walls sit off Highway 50 west of Austin, willow long gone.

What the plaque says

In 1861, the rocks composing the walls of this stage station and freighter stop were in neat rows and roofed with bundles of willow. It was one part of "Stagecoach King" John Butterfield's Overland Mail and Stage Company Road Systems, which at the time began traversing this central route between Salt Lake City, Utah and Genoa, Nevada. The natural spring here was inadequate for both humans and horses. However, Division Superintendent Thomas Plain's support ranch, one mile to the west, kept this important team-watering and stock replacement stop operating. Completion of the first transcontinental railroad meant the eventual demise of the Overland Stage line. In 1866, Butterfield sold out to Wells Fargo and Company. By February 1869 Wells Fargo suspended all operations on the Central route and the New Pass station faded into history.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Austin — 24 mi
  A silver boomtown that hit ten thousand and fell to under two hundred — the living ghost town at the high middle of US-50

More markers nearby

• Edwards Creek Valley — 12 mi
• Jacobsville — 18 mi
• Rock Creek (Cold Springs Station) — 22 mi
• Austin — 23 mi