Near Fallon in Churchill County, Nevada — The American Mountains (Southwest)
Taking Refuge
Photographed by Jeremy Snow, November 21, 2024
1. Taking Refuge Marker
Inscription. This room and the room you just walked through were the living areas for the Pony Express employees. Here they ate, slept, and passed the time when they were not working. Life at the station was not only hard, it was wretched. Sir Richard Burton, a noted English explorer, visited Sand Springs on October 17, 1860. His diary entry for that day reads in part:
"The water near this vile hole was thick and stale with sulphury salts: it blistered even the hands. The station house was roofless and chairless, filthy and squalid, with a smokey fire in one corner, and a table in the centre of an impure floor, the walls open to every wind, and the interior full of dust. Of the employees, all loitered and sauntered about as cretins, except one, who lay on the ground crippled and apparently dying by the fall of a horse on his breast bone."
Marker is near Fallon, Nevada, in Churchill County. It can be reached from Austin Highway (U.S. 50). Marker can be reached from US Highway 50 (U.S. 50). Sand Mountain is about 20-25 miles east of Fallon, NV off of Highway 50. Take the road (north) that leads toward Sand Mountain Recreation Area, follow the signs to the Pony Express Station parking area, then walk. Touch for map. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Nevada’s Colorado River Valley, specifically in Flagstaff & High Country, on the Mogollon Rim, in the Prescott Area, in Verde Valley, in the White Mountains, in The Valley (the San Fernando Valley), in the Inland Empire, in Silicon Valley, in the Coachella Valley, in the Colorado Desert, in the Gold Country, in the High Desert, in the Mojave Desert, in the San Bernardino Mountains, in the San Luis Valley, in the Berkshire Foothills, in the Connecticut River Valley, on the Connecticut Shoreline, on the Gold Coast, in Greater Bridgeport, in Greater Hartford, in Greater New Haven, in Greater New London, in the Knowledge Corridor, in the Litchfield Hills, in Mystic and the Eastern
Photographed by Jeremy Snow, November 21, 2024
2. Taking Refuge Marker
Shore, in the Quiet Corner, in the Thames River Valley, on Delawares Beaches, in Southern New Castle County, in the Everglades, on the Florida Keys, on Hilo and East Hawaii, on the Kona Coast, on North Shore Oahu, on Pearl Harbor and Historic West Oahu, in Upcountry Maui, in Lahaina and West Maui, on Windward Oahu, in the Quad Cities, on the Indiana Dunes and Lake Michigan Shore, in the Calumet Region, in the Spirit Lake Nation, in the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, in the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, on the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation, in the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, on the Cheyenne River Reservation, in the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, on the Coeur d'Alene Reservation, in the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, on the Kootenai Reservation, in the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, on the Wind River Indian Reservation, on the ShoshonePaiute Duck Valley Reservation, on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, in the Yankton Sioux Tribe, in the Navajo Nation, on the Shoshone-Bannock Fort Hall Reservation, on the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation, on Nez Perce Tribal Land, in the Blackfeet Nation, in the Crow Nation, in the Flathead Nation, in the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, in the Northern Cheyenne Nation, on the Rocky Boys Reservation, in the Tohono Oodham Nation, in the White Mountain Apache Nation, in the Yavapai-Apache Nation, in the Amana Colonies, on Mount Desert Island, in the Kennebec Valley, in the Maine Highlands, in Midcoast Maine, on Penobscot Bay, on Southern Maine Coast, in the Western Maine Lakes and Mountains Region, in Greater Bangor, in Greater Portland, in the Baltimore Metro Region, in Central Maryland, in Historic Boston, on Cape Ann, on the North Shore, in the South Coast, on the South Shore, in Greater Boston, on the Straits of Mackinac, on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in Greater Duluth The Twin Ports, in Greater Billings, in the Northern Nevada, in the Lakes Region, in the Merrimack Valley, in North Jersey, in Central Jersey, on the Jersey Shore, in the Pine Barrens, in Piedmont Triad, on the Cape Fear Coast, on the Crystal Coast, in Greater Asheville, in Greater Charlotte, on the Outer Banks, in the Research Triangle, on the Oregon Coast, in the Blackstone Valley, in Greater Providence, on Narragansett Bay, in Newport and Aquidneck Island, in Historic Charleston, on the Grand Strand, on the Sea Islands, on Waccamaw Neck, in the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto Basin, in the Foothills, in Congaree Country, in Greater Burlington, in the Mid-Ohio Valley and in the Jackson Hole Area. It is also in the American Mountain West, in the Ohio River Valley, on the Colorado Plateau, in the Black Hills, in the Chesapeake Bay Region, and on the Eastern Seaboard. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region, North America, the Great North Woods, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once Fairfield County, Hartford County, Litchfield County, Middlesex County, New Haven County, New London County, Tolland County, Windham County, New Spain, the Viceroyalty of New France,Acadia, and Mexicos Alta California.
Credits. This page was last revised on March 9, 2026. It was originally submitted on November 28, 2024, by Jeremy Snow of Cedar City, Utah. This page has been viewed 240 times since then and 18 times this year. Photos:1, 2. submitted on November 28, 2024, by Jeremy Snow of Cedar City, Utah. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.
