You are here

Nevada » Northern Region » Elko » Ruby Valley Pony Express Station

Ruby Valley Pony Express Station

-A A +A
c. 1860. 1960, moved. 1515 Idaho St.
  • Ruby Valley Pony Express Station (Bret Morgan)

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.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Julie Nicoletta
×

Data

What's Nearby

Elko City Hall
Sherman Station
Bradley House
Reinhart House
Hay and Grain Store

Citation

Julie Nicoletta, "Ruby Valley Pony Express Station", [Elko, Nevada], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/NV-01-NO61.

Print Source

Buildings of Nevada, Julie Nicoletta. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 157-158.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,