Pope's Crossing was used by emigrants and the Southern (Butterfield) Overland Mail, which linked St. Louis and San Francisco with semi-weekly mail from 1858 to 1861. In 1855 it was the headquarters of Captain John Pope, who supervised the drilling of the first deep well west of the 98th meridian. Water was struck at 244 feet, but the shaft was sunk to 1140 feet in hopes of reaching artesian flow. The well caved in before its value could be determined, but the $100,000 experiment pointed the way to deep well drilling in the Great Plains.