Cold Springs
Cold Springs (occasionally called Rock Creek) was the site of three separate stations during the 1860s. The first was the Pony Express station, built March 1860 by Bolivar Roberts, J.G. Kelly, and their crew. Two months later, the station was raided by natives who killed the stationmaster and stole the horses. Not long thereafter, in response to the Pyramid Lake War, the station was enlarged and modified for protection, including the addition of gunports. On October 15, 1860, Sir Richard Burton described Cold Springs Station as "...a wretched place, half built and wholly unroofed...". Following the completion of the new Overland Stage Station in 1861, the Pony Express may have moved there, but this station was certainly abandoned after the Pony Express ceased operation in October 1861 (though it may have been used for a period of time by area ranchers).
The second station at Cold Springs was the Transcontinental Telegraph Station, built as a repeater and for maintenance along the new line between Omaha and Carson City sometime in 1861 about 1½ miles northwest of the Pony Express station. It was followed shortly after by construction of the Overland Mail Company's stage station, which consisted of two buildings; the larger was the station headquarters while the second served as a blacksmith shop and corrals. Both of these stations were used until 1869, when the newly completed Transcontinental Railroad (and parallel telegraph line) provided a faster connection between east and west.
