4WD or high clearance desired
  Desert Station
MAP

39.263324° -119.057990°

VISITED 9/13/2001, 10/8/2022
DIRECTIONS Take U.S. 50 to Silver Springs, proceed south for 9.9 miles; turn east on the Simpson Road; 8.3 miles to local dirt road; take right and proceed 3.4 miles
WHAT WAS

From the National Park Service:

L.C. Bishop and Paul Henderson, as well as the mail contract of 1861, list Desert as a station between Carson Sink and Fort Churchill. This obscure station probably housed telegraph activities and possibly served as a Pony Express station during the last few months of its existence. A good source of water later made the station a popular stopping point for travelers, miners, and teamsters in the 1860s.

Desert Station probably served as both a Pony Express station and an Overland Mail station. It's very likely that, as the route changed, Hooten Wells replaced it as a station.

Walt Mulcahy, in an article entitled "Finding the Misplaced Routes" appearing in the Reno Evening Gazette in 1960, stated,

"Desert Station, also an important Pony Express and stage stop, was also called Coates Well, Hooten Well, and finally Casey's Well, and can be found by going seven-tenths of a mile south from the bridge at Weeks on HIghway Alternate 95, to the road taking off to the east across the desert. Stay to the right on this road at all times until you have gone eleven and seven-tenths miles at which point the famous old stattion is located."
-Reno Evening Gazette, July 26, 1960

That certainly would put you in the vicinity of Desert Station, with Hooten Wells becing about 1.2 miles to the NE as the crow flies. While Hooten Wells also reported was a Pony Express Station, they are two differnet locations. A notice to Appropriate Public Water dated 1936 made by Benjamin F. Casey of Fallon to divert water from Hooten Well was probably the impetus for the reference to "Casey's Well."

NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR PERMISSION TO APPROPRIATE THE PUBLIC WATERS OF THE STATE OF NEVADA. Application No. 9906 Notice is hereby given that on the 24th day of October, 1935, In accordance with Section 59, Chapter 59, of the Statutes of 1919, Benjamin F. Casey of Fallon, County of Churchill, State of Nevada, made application to the State Engineer of Nevada for permission to appropriate 1/8 of a second foot of the public waters of the State of Nevada. Diversion is to be made from and Underground Source (Hooten Well) at a point in the NE1/4 SEA Sec. 3, T. 16 N., R. 26 E.. M. D. B. at M. Water ,will be diverted by means of a pump and conveyed by pipe line to a tank located in the same subdivision as the point of diversion, and there used for watering 2,000 sheep and 500 cattle and / or horses from January 1st to December 31st of each year. ALFRED MERRITT SMITH State Engineer. First publication: March 6, 1936 Last publication: April 3, 1936
-Reno Evening Gazette


So, as far as we know, Desert Stattion was only Desert Station and not any of the other names.

 

POST OFFICE None
NEWSPAPER None
WHAT IS

Some rock ruins and a collection of rusted metal things that previous visitors have stacked next to one of the monuments for your viewing pleasure.

 
Photographs | Return to Previous Document | HOME