Shoshone, Arapaho, Crow, and Sioux Indians occupied this pleasant valley long before the Oregon Trail changed their cultures and lifestyles forever, leading to tragic warfare and the eventual loss of country they had called their own. Split Rock Relay Station, a crude log structure with a pole corral, was built at the base of the mass of rocks directly in front of you and was used by both the Pony Express and the Overland Stage and, until the early 1940s, was a U.S. Post Office. The Pony Express generally followed the Oregon Trail through Wyoming to Fort Bridger, one hundred eighty-five miles west of here, then followed the existing mail route across Utah and Nevada to Sacramento, California. A detachment of the 1st Independent Battalion Ohio Cavalry, which later became the 11th Ohio Cavalry, was garrisoned here in 1862, providing escort for stagecoaches and emigrant wagon trains and protecting the new telegraph lines.