| MEDIA |
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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. |