Pony Express Station, Gothenburg, NE

We visited a Pony Express Station in Nebraska.  The station we visited was used as a fur trading post/ranch house along the Oregon Trail before it was used as a Pony Express station in 1860-1861.  About every ten miles a "way" station (where a rider changed horses) was located at a spring or stream.  And every 50 miles a "home" station was located where riders could sleep had been established clear across the western continent long the Old Oregon and California trails.  The first trip took 9 days and 23 houses as the rider dashed into Sacramento, CA.  The Pony Express operated only 18 months at the cost of many lives and the operators lost $100,000.