Atrocities and Hostilities

Atrocities and Hostilities. . , American Indians inhabited lands along the Pony Express Trail for thousands of years before the Pony began its historic run. From the 1840s through the 1860s, they watched swarms of white settlers cross their homelands-impacting traditional hunting grounds with cattle and oxen grazing prairie grasses down to bare ground, and then the senseless killing of thousands of buffalo. , A long history of hostilities on both sides, combined with the terrible atrocities committed by hordes of miners during the 1859-60 rush for silver and gold at the Comstock Lode Mine in western Nevada, launched several years of conflict throughout the Great Basin area. Emigrant wagon trains, Pony Express riders, and station keepers alike began experiencing the angry reactions of regional tribes. , Pony Express riders and station workers alike were frequent targets of attack. Because they could hide safely behind cabin walls during an attack, one might think that workers in the station were safer than the riders were. Not so-more station workers were killed than riders were. Unlike riders who could usually outrun threats, station keepers were sitting ducks. Most of the stations across western Utah and Nevada were not much more than flimsy shelters-frequently located in remote areas far from help. , British adventurer, Sir Richard Burton, on his way west from Salt Lake City in 1860, made this observation on the stations: "On this line there are two kinds of stations, the mail stations, where there is an agent in charge of five or six 'boys,' and the express station-where there is only a master and an express rider... It is a hard life, setting aside the chance of death, no less than three murders have been committed by the Indians during this year." , Caption The original station, located about three miles west of here, was burned down in an Indian attack, rebuilt with stones on this site, and renamed Canyon Station.