This station was used as an overnight stage stop, where Richard Burton spent the night on August 16, 1860. “Our station lay near the upper crossing or second bridge, a short distance from the town. It was also built of timber at an expense of $40,000 about a year ago by Louis Guenot. . . . It was impossible to touch the squaw’s supper: the tin cans that contained the coffee were slippery with grease, and the bacon looked as if it had been dressed side-by-side with ‘boyaux’.”

The Pony Express also established a station at this complex. Pony riders crossed the North Platte River on Guinard’s Bridge, but the route stayed close to the north bank of the river until reaching Red Buttes Crossing, where another Pony Express station was located. In 1862, Lt. Col. William O. Collins sent one company of the 11th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry to protect the telegraph line at “Guinard’s Bridge.” The soldiers moved into Guinard’s abandoned trading post/stage station complex, and named the garrison “Mormon Ferry Post.”

It was renamed in honor of First Lieutenant Caspar Collins who was killed while protecting a supply train from Indian attack just north of the bridge. The fort continued to protected emigrant trails and the transcontinental telegraph line until its abandonment in 1867. Once the military departed, Indians quickly burned the post, but an excellent reconstruction marks the site.

Operated by the city of Casper, the fort has a museum/visitor center with interpretive exhibits. Source: National Park Service and BLM brochure.