Rock Creek (Cold Springs Station) NV83
(Cold Springs Station) In its day, an important stagecoach stop on John Butterfield's (1861-1866) and Wells, Fargo & Company's (1866-69) Overland Mail & Stage Company's historic line along the Simpson Route between Salt Lake City and Genoa, Nevada. Fresh horses, blacksmith services, and wagon repair facilities were available here. The Pony Express Cold Springs Station was constructed 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 Overland Telegraph-Pacific Telegraph Company's Pioneer 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.

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Tate's Stage Station (1886-1901) NV217
Long after the railroads came to Nevada and the branch lines were extended towards the heartland of the state, horse-drawn stages transported people and mail from railhead to the hinterlands. The principal routes were covered by such well-known lines as Overland Mail and Stage Co., William Hill Beachey Railroad Stage Lines, Butterfield's, Wells, Fargo and Co., Pioneer Stageline, Carson and Columbus Stage Line, plus other lesser-known lines. Thomas Tate sub-contracted mail routes in central Nevada for over thirty years. In 1886, he and his wife established a station due east as an overnight stop between the county seats of Austin and Belmont. Stages met here and exchanged passengers and mail and obtained fresh horses. Tommy's wife fed and lodged the passengers, in what became a local social center. Ester Tate organized the first school in the area. The Tates maintained this station until 1901. Belmont lost the county seat in 1905.

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The High Plains KS45
Here on the western border of Kansas is the heart of yesterday's buffalo and Indian country. Until the 1870s millions of buffalo grazed these plains, and in this area were fought some of the last battles between Indians and whites. Troops stationed at Fort Wallace, 25 miles east, patrolled the frontier and participated in many skirmishes with hostile warriors. Following generally along the Smoky Hill river, the Butterfield Overland Despatch crossed near here as it linked the westward-building Union Pacific (then the Kansas Pacific) railroad with Denver. Beginning in 1865 this famous stage line carried hundreds of passengers, in addition to freight and mail. In 1866 Ben Holladay purchased the Despatch but the same year sold out to Wells, Fargo & Co., which operated the line until the railroad was completed in August, 1870. On Mount Sunflower, 11 1/2 miles north of this marker is the highest point in Kansas, 4,025.5 feet above sea level. Westward the Great Plains climb to merge into the foothills of the Rockies; in the opposite direction they descend gradually to the fertile river valleys and woodlands of eastern Kansas.

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