Oak Grove Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

Oak Grove Area Cameras

Former stage and Pony Express station · Nuckolls County · stage station from about 1856

About Oak Grove

Oak Grove was a ranch and station on the Oregon Trail on the north side of the Little Blue River in Nuckolls County, about 1½ miles east-southeast of present Oak. The Oak Grove Station monument stands at the site; only the fenced monument area and its parking are open, and the land around it is private.

History

A stage station stood at Oak Grove from about 1856, and E. S. Comstock took over the place in the spring of 1861. It is usually identified as Pony Express station No. 7 in Nebraska (also called Comstock's); Little Blue Station, a few miles upriver, may also have served the Pony Express briefly in 1861.

On August 7, 1864, at the start of the raids that closed the trail for two months, warriors attacked the ranch while Comstock was away and killed two men; the defenders held the house, but the ranch was burned the next day. It was rebuilt in September 1865, and a stockade was added in 1870. On June 27, 1871, Nuckolls County was organized here at an election held under an elm tree, with 33 votes cast, and the county's first Fourth of July celebration followed. The first post office in the area, opened in 1874, was called Oak Grove before the name was shortened to Oak.

Nearby towns

Oak	about 1.4 mi west-northwest	County roads
Ruskin	about 6 mi south	County roads
Nora	about 7 mi southwest	County roads
Davenport	about 7 mi north-northeast	County roads
Nelson	about 10 mi west-southwest	County roads, NE 4 and NE 14