XP: Hollenberg Pony Express Station

Ben approaching the station from the south

I'd bet that just about every American has heard of the Pony Express.  Most know that it was a system of carrying mail between St. Joseph, MO and Sacramento, CA utilizing a network of stations to switch out horses every 10-15 miles and riders every 75-100 miles along the way.  This allowed mail to be delivered to California from Missouri (and vice-versa) in 10 days, much faster than the trip by steamer around the tip of South America.  Few realize how little time the venture existed, lasting from 03 April 1860 to October 1861, just a little more than a year before being outdone by the telegraph.

Very few of the 163 Pony Express stations remain evident much beyond a historic marker at the site.  Only one Pony Express station remains in its original configuration and on its original site: Hollenberg Pony Express Station near Hanover, KS.  It is fairly simple to get to from St. Joseph, since US-36 roughly travels the Pony Express route to Marysville, KS (120ish miles).  Hollenberg Station is only a few miles northwest of Marysville.  We have been there several times over the years and it is worth the stopover if you are traveling towards Colorado from St. Joseph.

Cottonwood Ranch

North side view of Hollenberg Station

As with most of the Pony Express stations, Hollenberg Station was not built with the Pony Express in mind.  The trail used by the Pony Express was used by a variety of travelers.  It had been used as part of the Oregon-California trail since the 1840s, it was used as a stagecoach route by several businesses and was part of the military road to Fort Kearney.   Hoping to cash in by selling supplies these travelers, Gerat H. Hollenberg built this stopover on Cottonwood Creek in 1857.  A trail campground was to the south of the building, a blacksmith's shop was set up to the southeast  repair wagons that had broken, and there was a barn that could house 100 horses.  The original ranch house had six-rooms and served as the family's quarters, a tavern, hotel, general store and unofficial post office when it opened.

The station is mentioned briefly as "Cottonwood" in Mark Twain's book Roughing It loosely based on his summer 1861 trip with brother Orion to Carson City, NV.

"The Sphynx was a Sphynx no more! The fountains of her great deep were broken up, and she rained the nine parts of speech forty days and forty nights, metaphorically speaking, and buried us under a desolating deluge of trivial gossip that left not a crag or pinnacle of rejoinder projecting above the tossing waste of dislocated grammar and decomposed pronunciation!

How we suffered, suffered, suffered! She went on, hour after hour, till I was sorry I ever opened the mosquito question and gave her a start. She never did stop again until she got to her journey's end toward daylight; and then she stirred us up as she was leaving the stage (for we were nodding, by that time), and said:

'Now you git out at Cottonwood, you fellers, and lay over a couple o' days, and I'll be along some time to-night, and if I can do ye any good by edgin' in a word now and then, I'm right thar. Folks'll tell you't I've always ben kind o' offish and partic'lar for a gal that's raised in the woods, and I am, with the rag-tag and bob-tail, and a gal has to be, if she wants to be anything, but when people comes along which is my equals, I reckon I'm a pretty sociable heifer after all.'

We resolved not to 'lay by at Cottonwood.'" - Mark Twain in Roughing It

Gerat Henry Hollenberg

Traffic on the trail slowed greatly with the beginning of the Civil War and the demise of the Pony Express.  Changing fortunes meant changing plans, and Gerat Hollenberg turned his attention to farming, raising cattle and grain.  Emigrant traffic stopped almost altogether as railroads were built and connected people to the Big City and the West Coast in relative comfort.  Hollenberg made a great deal of money in real estate, and founded the town of Hanover, KS.  He provided monetary donations to build churches and government buildings in Hanover and spent three terms in the Kansas legislature before his death in 1874.

The station became a farm house and was used as such until the property was purchased by the Kansas legislature in 1941.  The station building has remained unchanged, allowing for replacement of worn out materials and has never moved from its original foundation.  Hollenberg Station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1961 and has been operated as a museum by the Kansas State Historical Society  since 1963.

Getting There

Back of the station from the southwest

US-36 is the nearest major thoroughfare to the site.  Turn north onto K-198 for 4 miles, then east (right) on K-243.  The visitor center is open April-August on Wednesday-Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM.  They are closed September-March and on state holidays.  A small admission fee is charged for the museum and to tour the inside of the building ($3 for adults, $1 for students, children under 5 years free).

Waypoint:  Latitude: 39.900945 N, Longitude: 96.843780 W

Street Address: 2889 23rd Rd, Hanover, KS 66945

View of the station from the visitor's center

Further Reading

National Register of Historic Places Application

Kansaspedia Hollenberg Station entry

Hollenberg Station Official Site