Ruby Valley Pony Express Station

Ruby Valley Pony Express Station

Ruby Valley Pony Express Station Bret Morgan

Ruby Valley Pony Express Station

c. 1860. 1960, moved. 1515 Idaho St.

This small log cabin, measuring 11 by 18 feet, looks out of place on the front lawn of the Northeastern Nevada Museum. It is the only surviving cabin of several built for a Pony Express station in remote Ruby Valley, about sixty miles southeast of Elko. Concerned about the cabin's possible destruction, the museum moved the building in 1960, the centennial of the Pony Express. Although the move destroyed the cabin's physical context, the building remains today as one of only two surviving Pony Express log stations in Nevada; the other is Friday's Station at Stateline.

Vertical logs form the walls, which are topped by smaller logs placed perpendicularly to support the slightly sloped shed roof. Two posts inside the building also support the sod-covered roof. An exterior stone chimney stands at one end of the cabin. The only opening into the building is the front entrance, centered in the main facade. Although many Pony Express stations consisted of rudimentary cabins for shelter, they were critical to the survival of the route during its eighteen months of existence in 1860 and 1861.

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