Pole Creek Ranch

Eighteen miles was the first leg out of Cheyenne, and by the early 1880s the stop was Fred Schwartz's ranch on Pole Creek, barroom included. In a May flood soon after Russell Thorp bought the line, Thorp rode the up coach as a box passenger, leaving Cheyenne at four in the morning through streets of liquid mud. At Pole Creek the passengers were sent to the barroom while Schwartz guided the coach to safe ground and over the patched bridge approaches. Beyond, Horse Creek had lost its bridge outright.

What the plaque says

Pole Creek Ranch was first regular stop of the Cheyenne and Black Hills stage 18 miles from Cheyenne a "hotel" was built in 1876 Erected by the Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming 1958

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cheyenne Frontier Days — 13 mi
  A railroad agent's excursion scheme for a town with no crop to celebrate, which became a six-hour show in 1897 and the Daddy of 'em All.
• Wyoming State Capitol — 15 mi
  A sandstone capitol set to face the Union Pacific depot down one long street, its copper dome gilded in 1900 when the copper tarnished.

More markers nearby

• Cheyenne, Ft. Laramie, Deadwood Trail — 11 mi
• Fort Laramie Trail — 13 mi
• Camp Carlin — 15 mi
• The Cheyenne-Ft. Laramie-Deadwood Trail — 15 mi