SAND SPRINGS PONY EXPRESS STATION

People tend to imagine the courageous riders galloping from station to station when thinking about the Pony Express. But, the "Pony" never could have accomplished what it did without the station masters and attendants. These men were often lonely and in danger just as the riders. There was little excitement in their lives, and boredom was constant. And the living conditions were often squalid.

One can get a feel for the isolation and living conditions at a Pony Express station twenty five miles east of Fallon at Sand Springs, one of the best preserved stations in Nevada.

Sir Richard Burton, British scholar and explorer, gave this keen account of Sand Springs, a Pony Express station at the base of Sand Mountain, during his trip across Nevada in 1860:

"The water near this vile hole was thick and stale with sulphury salts: it blistered even the hands. The station house was no unfit object in such a scene, roofless and chairless, filthy and squalid, with a smoky fire in one corner, and a table in the centre of an impure floor, the walls open to every wind and interior full of dust..."

And while Pony Express employees were forbidden to drink intoxicating liquors, the most common items found during excavation of Sand Springs were fragments of liquor bottles. It is easy to understand why.

Sand Springs was covered with sand for over a hundred years, undisturbed beneath its grainy blanket. It was rediscovered in 1976 by a team of archaeologists, excavated and stabilized in 1977. Until that time, other ruins more than a mile away were believed to be the Sand Springs station. An interpretive sign has been placed on the premises and visitors are encouraged to explore this National Historic site. The site is located just off U.S. Highway 50, 25 miles east of Fallon.