The Pony Express Station Museum in Gothenburg offers a glimpse of a fascinating moment in American history. We made a short detour here on our way through Nebraska, and found it to be well worth the visit!
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An original Pony Express station
The original station was a relay point for the Pony Express route, which started in 1860. The Pony Express trail was created to speed up communication between St. Joseph, Missouri and California. The Trail cut down mail delivery time from weeks to roughly ten days!
While we were visiting the Sod House Museum, the docent suggested that we go into the city of Gothenburg to see their Pony Express Station. Although it wasn’t our original plan, we decided to detour since it was so close.
A short ten-minute drive brought us to a beautiful city park (Ehmen Park). We saw a tiny log cabin with a metal silhouette of a running horse a few feet away.
Sam Machette Station
This original log building was an actual station that the city chose to preserve. Other previous names for this station were: Machette’s Station, Dan Trout’s, Joe Bower’s, and Broken Ranch.
The building was originally located on the Oregon Trail southwest of Gothenburg and 4 miles east of Fort McPherson. It was used as a fur trading post and a ranch house prior to becoming a Pony Express Station.
Later, the cabin was used as an Overland Trail Stage Station bunk house and storage house on the Upper ’96’ Ranch. The 1854 building was moved from its original site to its current location on Gothenburg city park grounds.
NOTE: there is a second station located about two or three miles outside Gothenburg called Midway Station. It’s not open to the public except by appointment for special events, such as the National Pony Express Association Re-Ride events.
The Gothenburg Pony Express Station Museum
Walking around the station exterior, you can see the original wood, weathered from decades of Nebraska’s winters. There’s also an audio tour that you can listen to on the radio for a brief introduction to the station.
When we stepped inside, we were all surprised at how cramped it was! There was room for a small display on one side, and a few gift shop items on the other.
Lightning Mail
The displays and artifacts help bring to life the station’s day-to-day flow. I was already familiar with the history. But standing there in that tiny cabin, I could better understand why they wanted “young men, ages sixteen to eighteen, orphans preferred”!
Pony Express riders were light and swift—truly the extreme sports athletes of their day, racing through storms and dangerous territory with a saddlebag full of “lightning mail.”
It was a hard life for the brave riders, and many new riders did not survive the job. I had a renewed appreciation for my same day Amazon Prime deliveries!
Planning to return!
We only spent about half an hour there because we still had a long drive ahead to get to Missouri. It was just enough time to see that Gothenburg is a place we’d love to return to and explore more thoroughly.
We later learned that the National Pony Express Association hosts a re-ride every year along the route of the Pony Express. If you’re an enthusiast, you’ll definitely want to check it out!
Next stop on our 2021 summer road trip: our day at Oceans of Fun waterpark in Kansas City, Missouri!
You may also enjoy these posts:
- Sod House Museum Gothenburg
- Visiting Oregon Trail Ruts
- Fort Cody Trading Post, Nebraska
- Bailey Yard, North Platte, Nebraska
- Best Museums in Kansas City
©️ Copyright Jennifer D. Warren 2025.
