Sweetwater Station

Sweetwater Station was about 2 miles to the northeast of Independence Rock. Notwithstanding, the closure of the Pony Express, the various stations remained open for a time as telegraph and stage stations and as small military posts in which small detachments of soldier were stationed to guard the vital link to California.

In the early 1860's Indian attacks became more frequent on the stage and telegraph stations along the Oregon Trail. One former pony express rider, William F. Cody, later observed:
About the middle of September the Indians became very troublesome on the line of the stage road along the Sweetwater. Between Split Rock and Three Crossings they robbed a stage, killed the driver and two passengers, and badly wounded Lieut. Flowers, the assistant division agent. The red-skinned thieves also drove off the stock from the different stations, and were continually lying in wait for the passing stages and pony express riders, so that we had to take many desperate chances in running the gauntlet.

The Indians had now become so bad and had stolen so much stock that it was decided to stop the pony express for at least six weeks, and to run the stages only occasionally during that period; in fact, it would have been almost impossible to have continued the enterprise much longer without restocking the line.