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Virginia Dale Stage Station

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1862. U.S. 287, 5 miles south of Wyoming (NR)
  • Virginia Dale Stage Station (Tom Noel)

Jack Slade built this station and named it for his wife. His hewn log structure is divided by upright logs into three sections under a low gable roof. It has several additions. The Overland Stage Company hired Slade to build and run this stop to keep him from robbing it. A notorious gunman, Slade was described by Mark Twain in Roughing It (1872) as an “ogre who, in fights and brawls and various ways, had taken the lives of twenty-six human beings.” Since the stage abandoned it in 1869, the ram-shackle structure has been a post office, general store, dance hall, and women's clubhouse. It is thought to be the last intact stage stop on the Overland Trail.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Virginia Dale Stage Station", [Livermore, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-LR45.

Print Source

Buildings of Colorado, Thomas J. Noel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 238-239.

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