After the Civil War, the Union Pacific laid track westward, bringing commerce to the wilderness, and the transcontinental railroad and the communities that sprang up around it helped settle the Territory of Wyoming. With the 1868 discovery of gold in the South Pass area, the Overland Mail Station and the small community at Point of Rocks became a supply depot for the Sweetwater gold rush, and a stage road was quickly established between the rail head and the gold field. The town bustled with activity as it funneled miners to the strike and provided for their needs, with several stage companies competing furiously for business until the gold rush collapsed as the Sweetwater mines played out. The United States Census for 1870 listed sixty-five persons residing in fourteen dwellings at Point of Rocks, including eleven Irish, eight English, and two Scottish laborers. The Justice of the Peace was forty-five-year-old Carolyn Neal, a woman born in England, and her husband Robert was a clerk for the railroad. The only Wyoming-born residents were William and James Whalen, born to Irish parents. The community included housekeepers, storekeepers, hotel keepers, carpenters, grocers, teamsters, telegraph operators, baggage men, firemen, and engineers. Point of Rocks later served travelers along the Overland Stage Route, Cherokee Trail, Union Pacific Railroad, Point of Rocks to South Pass City Stage Route, Lincoln Highway, U.S. Route 30, Interstate 80, and even the Information Superhighway.