Rock Creek (Cold Springs Station)

Three kinds of communication once met at this bend on the central route: a Butterfield and Wells Fargo stage stop with blacksmith and wagon shop, a telegraph repeater to the north, and the Pony Express's Cold Springs station on the sagebrush bench across the highway. That Pony station survives as a roofless stone fortress with gunports, raised after raiders killed a keeper in 1860. Richard Burton slept here that year and called it wretched and half-built. The railroad killed all three in 1869; the walls still stand.

What the plaque says

Rock Creek was an important stagecoach stop on the Overland Mail & Stage Company’s historic line along the Simpson route between Salt Lake City and Genoa, Nevada, which was operated by John Butterfield (1861-1 866) and later Wells, Fargo & Company (1866-1869). Fresh horses, blacksmith services, and wagon-repair facilities were available here. The Pony Express constructed the Cold Springs station in 1860 on the sagebrush bench eastward across the highway. To the north are the ruins of a telegraph repeater and maintenance station which serviced this segment of the transcontinental line, which was completed between Sacramento and Omaha in 1861. The line was abandoned in August 1869. The coming of the transcontinental railroad and its parallel telegraph line along the Humboldt River to the north spelled the demise of both the telegraph line and the stage route here.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Wagon Jack Shelter — 6.3 mi
• Edwards Creek Valley — 12 mi
• Wonder — 18 mi
• Fairview (1905-1917) — 21 mi