Hollenberg Pony Express Station

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1857 (vernacular architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

From the record

“The Hollenberg Pony Express Station, also known as Cottonwood Pony Express Station, is the most intact surviving station of the Pony Express in the United States. Hollenberg in 1858, to serve travelers on the Oregon and California Trails, and was used by the Pony Express when it was established in 1860.”
Wikipedia article Hollenberg Pony Express Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 7 National Register listings published here for Washington County · listed in 1966 · category: Building · built in 1857, vernacular architecture · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 1.5 mi E of Hanover, Hanover, 66945
When was it listed? October 1966
Category. building
Township. Hanover township
When was it built? 1857
Architectural style. vernacular architecture
National Register reference number. 66000352 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

7 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Hollenberg Pony Express Station between 2015 and 2017, burning about 160 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Debris and open burning	1
Arson/incendiarism	1
Natural	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2017	Debris and open burning	60 acres	Washington County	6
24 August 2017	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Washington County	11
24 February 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Kansas Forest Service	2
27 December 2016	Equipment and vehicle use	20 acres	Kansas Forest Service	17
23 October 2015	Natural	under an acre	Kansas Forest Service	11
19 October 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Kansas Forest Service	12
12 October 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	80 acres	Kansas Forest Service	10

Every fire recorded in Washington County

Storms near this property

60 of 63 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hanover, the town this property stands in, in 63 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 39 hail, 18 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 2 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	$500,000	Severe thunderstorm winds blew down 15 telephone poles and did extensive damage to trees and farm outbuildings.
June 1998	Tornado (F0)	Hanover	$12,000	no account filed
August 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	$10,000	no account filed
May 2005	Flash Flood	Hanover	$5,000	Torrential rains of 5 to 6 inches brought fast flowing water of at least 6 inches across Kansas highway 148.
September 1999	Lightning	Hanover	$3,000	Lightning struck a residence and did minor damage.
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	$2,000	no account filed
June 1994	Hail	Hanover	$500	no account filed
June 1994	Hail	Hanover	$500	no account filed
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	Mping report of 1 inch tree limbs broken, shingles blown off. Time estimated from radar.
September 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	Tree limbs 1 inch in diameter blown down. Pea to nickel sized hail also reported.
September 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	Wind gust of 60 mph. Nickel sized hail also reported.
September 2023	Hail	Hanover	-	Nickel sized hail reported.
September 2023	Hail	Hanover	-	Nickel sized hail reported.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	Power line reported down in Hanover.
April 2016	Hail	Hanover	-	Report from photo on social media.
August 2016	Hail	Hanover	-	Wind gusts also estimated between 50 and 60 mph.
June 2015	Flash Flood	Hanover	-	Creek was out of its banks and flooding the county roads.
May 2015	Flash Flood	Hanover	-	Measured around 5 inches of rain in Hanover in about two and a half hours. Several streets in town were closed due to flooding.
August 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	Tree limbs up to 2 inches in diameter blown down.
March 2012	Hail	Hanover	-	This was a delayed report, discovered on social media.
August 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	Numerous tree limbs were broken from 65 mph winds near Hanover.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	Six inch tree limbs were down.
April 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	The public reported an estimated 60 mph wind gust near Washington. Small tree limbs were broken.
September 2008	Hail	Hanover	-	Trained spotters reported mostly penny to nickle size hail, with a couple stones as large as quarters.
June 2008	Hail	Hanover	-	Several reports of penny to quarter size hail.
August 2007	Hail	Hanover	-	Predominately quarter sized hail with a few golfball sized mixed in.
August 2007	Hail	Hanover	-	Several windows broken by the hail.
April 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	Fallen large tree limbs caused a transformer fire.
September 2019	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
May 2016	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
June 2015	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
August 2015	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
May 2015	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
July 2014	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
June 2013	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
March 2012	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
August 2011	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
August 2011	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
August 2010	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
September 2010	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
September 2010	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
April 2010	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
April 2010	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
May 2009	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
May 2009	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
August 2007	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
April 2005	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	no account filed
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	no account filed
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	no account filed
September 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	no account filed
September 2001	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Hanover	-	no account filed
May 1999	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
May 1999	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed
October 1998	Hail	Hanover	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Washington County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 66000352 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Washington County	All 7 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.