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The Cheyenne-Black Hills Stage Route Historic District encompasses the Running Water Stage Station and Rawhide Buttes Stage Station and the section of the original Cheyenne-Black Hills route between the two stations deemed to have significant historic value. The stage route was in operation from 1876 to 1887 between Cheyenne, Wyoming and Deadwood, South Dakota. Thousands of passengers, tons of freight and express, and millions of dollars in gold passed over this trail until it was superseded by a railroad. During the years the trail was in use, it became the scene of numerous Indian and outlaw depredations. East of Rawhide Buttes, the Texas Trail ran northward and intersected the Cheyenne-Black Hills road just north of Running Water Station. During the era of the great trail drives, thousands of cattle reached Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas over this trail. Rawhide Buttes Stage Station served as an important U. S. mail distribution point north of Cheyenne. Approximately fifteen miles north of Rawhide Buttes Station, the Running Water Stage Station became the scene of a small but lively mining boom during the 1880s. It developed as a frontier community until the Chicago-Northwestern Railroad chose nearby Lusk for its terminal. On February 19, 1887, the last Black Hills stage coach pulled out from the Inter-Ocean Hotel in Cheyenne for the final regular trip north. When the wheels stopped rolling over the Cheyenne-Black Hills route, most of the stations became ranch headquarters.

Photo on file at the State Historic Preservation Office