Crossing into Kansas, Hollenberg Ranch/Station is a later stop on the Oregon/California Trail. Later as in, not established until 1857 (some sources say 1858, but most agree on 1857), so near the end of the peak of the trail traffic. Some original sources called it Cottonwood station, since it was near Cottonwood creek. The Hollenbergs hit the jackpot with where he placed this ranch – it is right where the Independence road and St. Joseph road intersect so whether emigrants left from one or the other, they would cross Hollenberg Ranch.
Though it started out small, it eventually turned into a five-room building plus additional buildings, so pioneers could obtain meals, lodging, supplies, mail letters, and even have access to a blacksmith. The stagecoach also ended up stopping here frequently, along with soldiers on their way to or from various forts, and it was one of the main stops for the Pony Express.
It didn’t hurt that it was near Cottonwood creek and a campground, and there was both grass and wild berries.
If you visit today, you should know that it is supposedly the only remaining Pony Express station that is on the original site. I admit it looked far less impressive in person than it sounds on paper, but was so fun to see where actual wagons parked when I visited in 2021.
Margaret Fink, 1850 – “In the afternoon we came to the junction of the emigrant road from St. Joseph with our road. . . . Both roads were thickly crowded with emigrants. It was a grand spectacle when we came, for the first time, in view of the vast migration, slowly winding its way westward over the broad plain. The country was so level we could see the long trains of white-topped wagons for many miles. It appeared to me that none of the population had been left behind. It seemed to me that I had never seen so many human beings before in all my life.”
While this quote is not specifically referring to Hollenberg, since it hadn’t been built yet, it gives an idea of how the area looked shortly before.
See below for both partial and full map, and note the highlight indicating how far we traveled! You can also zoom in on the full map for more details (if it works the way it is supposed to anyway…).
National Trails System, National Park Service, and U.S. Department of the Interior. “National Historic Trails Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guide: Western Missouri through Northeastern Kansas.” National Historic Trails Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guide: Western Missouri Through Northeastern Kansas. National Park Service, September 2005. https://www.nps.gov/cali/planyourvisit/upload/MO-KS-ATR-Guide-2010-Revision-Small.pdf.
Forest Idylls 