Abandoned Towns
The sandstone Point of Rocks stage station with a shingled roof behind a rail fence, below pale sandstone outcrops, August 2020

Railroad and road town

Point of Rocks

A stage stop of 1862 on the Overland Trail where the Union Pacific arrived in 1868, and a starting point for the road to the South Pass gold camps. The sandstone station stands as a state historic site below the rocks; the settlement beside the interstate counted 3 people in 2000.

41°40′42″N 108°47′29″W · ≈6,500 ft

Photo: 25or6to4, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

State historic site · unstaffed

Wyoming State Parks lists the Point of Rocks Stage Station as an unstaffed site with historic buildings and interpretive signs, open year-round from sunrise to sunset (page read October 29, 2026). It is half a mile south of Interstate 80 exit 130. The newest dated photos of the station are from August 29, 2020.

Overview

Where the stagecoach met the railroad

The station and the ruined stable, with the railroad and I-80 beyond, August 2020
The station and the ruined stable, with the railroad and I-80 beyond, August 2020 · Photo: 25or6to4, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Point of Rocks sits on Bitter Creek in the high desert of southwest Wyoming, about 25 miles east of Rock Springs, where a wall of sandstone rises south of the valley. In 1862, after raids made the Oregon Trail route through South Pass too dangerous for the mail, Ben Holladay moved his Overland Stage line south across what is now southern Wyoming. Point of Rocks got one of the new stations, built of local sandstone laid in mud mortar, 1,009 miles west of Atchison, Kansas, and 904 miles from Placerville, California.

The stages ran until the summer of 1868, when Union Pacific track reached the station. For some years afterward, freight and passengers for South Pass City and the Sweetwater gold mines started here. Then the building settled into other lives: a store, a school, a ranch headquarters and a home. The National Register nomination says the station was also known as Rock Point or Almond station, and a ghost-town directory gives Almond as the name of the post office.

The State of Wyoming bought the station in 1947 and restored it in 1990 and 2005. Today it is a state historic site below the rocks, with the ruins of its stable and corral beside it. North of it, along the railroad and I-80, the settlement of Point of Rocks had 3 residents in the 2000 census. The big Jim Bridger coal-fired power plant is nearby.

Timeline

Stage station, freight depot, home

  1. With the Civil War draining troops from the West and raids cutting the Oregon Trail route, Ben Holladay moves his Overland Stage line south. A sandstone station goes up at Point of Rocks in late 1861 or early 1862, 14 miles from Black Buttes station to the east and 14 miles from Salt Wells to the west.
  2. The station is a daily passenger stop on the Overland Stage, run by Wells, Fargo and Company after Holladay sells out in 1866. It is burned out at least once.
  3. Union Pacific construction reaches Point of Rocks in the summer, making it the junction of the Overland Trail and the railroad. Through stage traffic ends.
  4. For several years the station is the starting point for stage and freight runs north to South Pass City and the Sweetwater gold mines.
  5. Union Pacific section foreman Lawrence Taggert moves his family in, and his wife teaches school in one room.
  6. Taggert's daughter and her husband, Charles Rador, live in the station and run sheep from it.
  7. The State of Wyoming acquires the station.
  8. The Point of Rocks Stage Station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 3.
  9. Wyoming State Parks carries out two major stabilization and restoration projects.
  10. The census counts 3 people in Point of Rocks.

Legends cling to the place. The Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office repeats stories that the station survived an attack and attempted burning, and that the outlaw Jack Slade robbed and killed stage passengers nearby. The Alliance for Historic Wyoming adds an 1877 stage robbery with the dead said to be buried in the nearby cemetery, and rumors that Butch Cassidy buried loot in the area. None of these is documented. The station's last resident, Jim McKee, was said to have ridden with the Hole-in-the-Wall gang and to have hunted for that loot.

On the ground

The station today

The sandstone walls of the ruined stable behind a rail fence, August 2017
The sandstone walls of the ruined stable behind a rail fence, August 2017 · Photo: Magicpiano, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The station is a long, low sandstone building with a roof, unglazed windows and dirt floors, and the stables beside it are a stabilized ruin, as the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office described them in 2014. The 1970 nomination noted that some original beams burned in raids had been replaced with telegraph poles. Wyoming State Parks runs it as an unstaffed site with interpretive signs. The photos here, from August 2017 and August 29, 2020, show the restored station behind a rail fence, the roofless stable walls and the gravel lot.

The historic maps below show the junction. The 1954 Rock Springs sheet marks Point of Rocks on the railroad and US 30 along Bitter Creek. The 1968 Point of Rocks sheet labels the Point of Rocks Stagecoach Station (Historical Site) south of the new interstate, with a cemetery beside it and a few buildings at the town. The 1980 Red Desert Basin sheet shows Point of Rocks at the bend of Bitter Creek with gravel pits nearby.

  • The restored 1862 sandstone stage station
  • Stable and corral ruins
  • Interpretive signs
  • A cemetery near the station
  • A Lincoln Highway marker in the settlement
USGS topographic map of Point of Rocks with I-80, the railroad and Bitter Creek
USGS The National Map, topo. Point of Rocks between I-80 and the bluffs.
Aerial view of Point of Rocks: the interstate, local roads and sagebrush below the bluffs
Aerial imagery, same area. The interstate, the local roads and the sagebrush flats.

The road

Trail, rails and highway

A Lincoln Highway marker plaque at Point of Rocks, October 2016
A Lincoln Highway marker plaque at Point of Rocks, October 2016 · Photo: Chris Light, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The same valley carried every transcontinental route in turn. The National Register nomination of 1970 notes that the station had become "indirectly related" to a third era of travel, the automobile road that is now Interstate 80. A plaque photographed at Point of Rocks in October 2016 says the Lincoln Highway, dedicated on October 31, 1913, came through on its way from Times Square to San Francisco. Old US 30 still arrives from the east beside the interstate.

Historic maps

Point of Rocks on USGS maps, 1954–1980

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Point of Rocks, 1954
Rock Springs sheet, 1954, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Point of Rocks is on Interstate 80 between Rock Springs and Wamsutter. Wyoming State Parks directs visitors to exit 130 and half a mile south to the stage station. Both routes below leave I-80 there and end on Black Buttes Road at the settlement, a few hundred yards from the station.

USGS topographic map from Rock Springs east along I-80 to Point of Rocks

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From Rock Springs25.7 miabout 28 min
  1. From Collins Street, take Agate, Edgar and Virginia Streets and James Drive to the South Side Belt Route (WY 376), then 9th Street (I-80 Business) to the I-80 on-ramp.1.8 mi
  2. Follow I-80 east and take the exit at Point of Rocks.23.4 mi
  3. Turn right on the I-80 service road, then left on Black Buttes Road.0.5 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • Wyoming State Parks: I-80 exit 130, then half a mile south. The 1970 nomination described a county dirt road from the interstate; we have no newer dated source on the surface.
  • The site is unstaffed and open sunrise to sunset all year. Bring what you need from Rock Springs.
  • The routes are computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.

Photos

Point of Rocks in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Point of Rocks?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Point of Rocks

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Wyoming index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wyoming State Parks, "Point of Rocks Stage Station Historic Site", read October 29, 2026: unstaffed site with historic buildings and signs, open year-round sunrise to sunset, I-80 exit 130 and half a mile south, built 1862 after Holladay moved his line.
  2. Bill Barnhart, National Register nomination, "Point of Rocks Stage Station", Wyoming Recreation Commission, 1970: late 1861 or early 1862, the 14-mile spacing, 1,009 and 904 miles, 1862–1868 service, the 1868 junction, the South Pass freight terminal, later uses, Rock Point and Almond, burned once, telegraph-pole beams, the county dirt road, coordinates.
  3. WyomingHeritage.org and Wyoming SHPO, "Point of Rocks Stage Station", WyoHistory.org, November 8, 2014: summer 1868, the Taggert and Rador families, Jim McKee, 1947, the 1970 listing, the station and stable condition, the legends.
  4. Alliance for Historic Wyoming, "Point of Rocks Stage Station", September 25, 2017: Holladay sells to Wells Fargo in 1866, the 1990 and 2005 restorations, the robbery and loot legends.
  5. Wikipedia, "Point of Rocks, Wyoming", retrieved October 29, 2026: 3 people in the 2000 census, the Jim Bridger Power Station, coordinates.
  6. Wikipedia, "Point of Rocks Stage Station State Historic Site", retrieved October 29, 2026: the 1868 end of the stage line, the 1947 acquisition.
  7. ghosttowns.com, "Point of Rocks", read October 29, 2026: fact sheet, the Almond post office, fewer than ten residents, road, best time and climate.
  8. Photos of the station, Wikimedia Commons, August 29, 2020: the newest dated view of the site.
  9. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited below each one. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 29, 2026. Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits