At the Cannonball Crossing of the Black Hills or Deadwood Trail stood a stagecoach station on the route that began at Bismarck, passed through Fort Abraham Lincoln, and ran southwest to Deadwood for about 240 miles. The trail was developed after gold deposits in the Black Hills were confirmed by the 1874 Custer Expedition, and it carried passengers and freight from the rail head of the Northern Pacific Railroad to the gold rush area. In the spring of 1877, the trail was surveyed and designated an official territorial road, and that year the Northwestern Express and Transportation Company built this station while dominating passenger and freight traffic over the trail. Late in 1880, a shorter trail from Pierre opened, the Bismarck route declined, and the station was soon abandoned. The trail later served area settlers and ranchers until a modern road system was developed. Depressions marking the station buildings remain visible, wheel ruts can still be seen in the undisturbed prairie to the southwest and northeast, and the old river crossing lay about 150 feet south of this point.