Rock Creek was an important stagecoach stop on the Overland Mail Stage Company's historic line along the Simpson route between Salt Lake City and Genoa, Nevada, operated by John Butterfield from 1861 to 1866 and later by Wells Fargo and Company from 1866 to 1869, where fresh horses, blacksmith services, and wagon-repair facilities were available. The Pony Express built the Cold Springs station in 1860 on the sagebrush bench eastward across the highway. To the north stood a telegraph repeater and maintenance station that serviced this segment of the transcontinental line completed between Sacramento and Omaha in 1861, before the line was abandoned in August 1869. The coming of the transcontinental railroad and its parallel telegraph line along the Humboldt River to the north brought about the end of both the telegraph line and the stage route here.