By AHW Staff

September 25, 2017

The Point of Rocks Stage Station, also known as Almond Station, was built in 1862 for Ben Holladay’s Overland Stage after Holladay moved his stage route from the popular Oregon Trail-South Pass route to the southern Overland Route.  Holladay sold out to the Wells Fargo Express in 1866, but the station continued to be used as a daily passenger stop until 1868.  After the Union Pacific Railroad arrived, it served as a starting terminal for freight operations running to and from South Pass City and the Sweetwater Mines.

The stage station was built from native sandstone taken from the nearby hills using mud mortar.  The original roof is believed to have been made form wooden poles and sod.  After it was abandoned as a station, the building was used as a store, a school, a ranch headquarters, and a home until it was acquired by the state in 1947.  There is a lot of local folklore surrounding the building, including stories about a stage robbery in 1877 (those killed in the attack are supposedly buried in the nearby cemetery).  There are also rumors that Butch Cassidy buried his loot nearby.