For pioneers who traveled along the path of the Pony Express, the Overland Stage Trail, or the Oregon Trail, a stop in the tiny town of Granger, Wyoming was a must. Granger Station, also known as the Old South Bend Station, was originally built in 1850. It served as a way station for travelers as they made their way over the high plains.
Mark Twain is said to have stopped here for a night on his Overland stagecoach trip west, a journey chronicled in his book Roughing It. Horace Greeley, a huge proponent of western expansion, was also said to have spent a night here.
The stables are now collapsed and the well is covered with wooden planks, but the main building’s exterior has been well-maintained. The interior is not accessible to the public.
Nearby is the Granger Community Cemetery, a pioneer cemetery last used in 1942. According to a historical marker outside the chain-link fence, a 2011 survey of the cemetery found 38 burial sites. The cemetery started as a “cluster of graves along pioneer trails” and became official when Granger was incorporated as a town in 1914.
