01Summary
A log cabin in Ehmen Park in Gothenburg, now a Pony Express museum. It first stood beside the Oregon Trail farther up the Platte valley and was moved here in 1931. Tradition calls it Machette's Station, but historians still debate whether Pony riders ever used it.
02History
From April 1860 to October 1861 the Pony Express carried mail on horseback between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, more than 1,800 miles in about 10 days. Across central Nebraska its riders used the same road as the Oregon Trail wagons, up the south side of the Platte River valley.
Along the way they changed horses at stations. Most were relay stations that only cared for horses, while home stations also housed the riders. The service ended in October 1861, when a telegraph line first linked California with the East.
The log cabin now in Gothenburg first stood beside the Oregon Trail on the south side of the Platte, four miles east of the spot where the Army built Fort McPherson in 1863. That is about 15 miles west of where it stands today. Local tradition says a man named Sam Machette built it in 1854 as a trading post and ranch house.
A plaque at the cabin says it served the Pony Express in 1860 and 1861, then was a stagecoach station, home, bunkhouse and storehouse on the '96' Ranch. The National Park Service lists the station as Machette's, also known as Upper 96 Ranch, Dan Trout's, Joe Bower's or Broken Ranch.
In 1931 Mrs. C.A. Williams gave the cabin to the city of Gothenburg. Members of the town's American Legion post took the two-story building apart, moved the logs to the city park and rebuilt it with one story. The town is younger than the cabin. A Swedish businessman, Olof Bergstrom, came up with the idea for Gothenburg in 1882, and it became a town in 1885, more than 20 years after the Pony Express ended.
Historians are not sure the cabin was ever a Pony Express station. 'The identity and location of Machette's Station remains controversial,' says a 1994 National Park Service study. Some researchers think it was part of a road ranch, a roadside business that sold food and lodging to travelers, on a route the Pony Express used, but not one of its stations.
The Midway Station, a log building a few miles south of town, is better documented. The 1969 nomination that put it on the National Register of Historic Places called it 'almost certainly an authentic Pony Express station,' and it still stands where it was built.
03Today
The cabin stands in Ehmen Park in Gothenburg as a Pony Express museum with exhibits and a gift shop, open from spring into fall. A life-size bronze of a galloping Pony Express rider by Nebraska artist Linda Egle, finished in 2025, stands beside it. The Midway Station survives on private land a few miles south of town.
05Stops nearby
The Oregon Trail ran about 2,170 miles from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City. The stops just before and after this one are below. You can also follow the whole route on the interactive map.