Pony Express Remount Station at Woodfords

Woodfords was a Pony Express station because of snow. When the service opened in April 1860 the direct line over Johnson Pass was buried, so riders came the Carson route and changed horses at Cary's Barn a few feet from here. Five weeks later the snow dropped, the route moved to Kingsbury Grade, and three stops including this one were cut. The state registered the station in 1965 and never put a plaque on it; both bronzes here are private.

What the plaque says

The Pony Express 1860-1861 1960-1961 Woodfords During the initial five weeks of its operation in 1860, an important remount station of the famous Pony Express was located a few feet from here at Cary's Barn. This monument erected by the Historical Society of Alpine County. National Pony Express Centennial Association Dwight D. Eisenhower - Chairman Waddell F. Smith - President Sherrill Halbert - Director at Large

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Genoa — 16 mi
  Nevada's oldest town—a California Trail trading post and Carson Valley ranch country that came eight years before the silver and quietly outlasted it
• Emerald Bay State Park — 19 mi
  A glacial fjord on Tahoe's west shore with the lake's only island and a Scandinavian house at the water.
• Cave Rock / De'ek Wadapush — 20 mi
  One of the most sacred places of the Wašiw—the Standing Gray Rock, a worn volcano the highway was blasted through and climbers bolted for sport, now closed and quiet again after the Washoe's long fight to protect it
• Glenbrook & Spooner Summit — 22 mi
  Lake Tahoe's east shore, where the basin was logged nearly clean to timber the Comstock—the forest that paid for the silver, and the century it has spent growing back

More markers nearby

• Marklee's Cabin Site — 6.2 mi
• Luther Canyon (Fay Canyon) — 6.5 mi
• Sheridan — 8.6 mi
• Kit Carson Marker — 11 mi