I’ve driven on Highway 36 through Norton, KS probably upward of a hundred times. I’ve started stopping here more frequently to fuel up both myself and my vehicle as I journey between home, in Broomfield, Colorado, and where I grew up in Superior, Nebraska. I’ve known for a couple of years that there is a roadside attraction here, but I’ve always found an excuse not to stop. Today, after fueling up at the Casey’s I decided I’d stretch my legs a bit more and check out Station 15.
Station 15 is named after an old stagecoach station that was in this area. It was so named as it was the fifteenth stop on the route. It is located right along Highway 36 on the south side of the road, and it sits almost directly under the Norton water tower. Directions are hardly needed as all you must do is park (there is ample parking) by the water tower and walk over to Station 15.
If you approach the building from the north, towards the right side by a window, you’ll see a red button. I assume that formerly pushing this button activated a recording that explained what is going on inside the building, but alas it didn’t work today. I had to settle for just walking around the building and taking pictures of the odd and eerie figures within.
There is a succinct description of the roadside attraction here
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/72418
But there is a more detailed written description at the site, which I’ve provided below.
Suffice it to say that probably none of the characters were ever in Norton, Kansas at the same time and some of it may even be speculative. Either way, this roadside attraction was crafted to entertain.
The Written Description at Station 15
“Welcome friendly visitor_
This is Station 15, midway on the Leavenworth Pikes Peak Express Company Route, Stagecoach and Wagon Train Depot on the shortest trail to the Denver Gold Fields.
The scene is May 31, 1859. Characters are those definitely documented as present and some especially selected based on clues that tend to identify them.
Horace Greeley, illustrious publisher of The New York Tribune, is here, accompanied by Albert Deane Richardson, correspondent on Greeley’s staff. “Old White Coat,” as Greeley was known, wore the famous garment on this trip. Richardson, handsome and prematurely gray, earned later renown as an author and Civil War reporter. His and Greeley’s various writings tell our Station 15 story.
Station keepers are Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Bonney, Sr. By winter a son, “Billy the Kid” is born. Ex-Cincinnati lawyer, Bonney is small and frail. His way station duties are exhaustive. And he has removed his coat. He will die soon after Billy’s birth and the widow, a former bowery actress, will leave Kansas with her small son. Billy, undersized like his father, is a killer at 12, is killed at 21. Mrs. Bonney has here donned old remnants of stage finery to honor her famous guests.
A young squaw mourning an Arapahoe Brave accidentally killed in hunting buffalo here, has remained with the Bonneys, who befriended her. Her people, now encamped to westward near Station 16, sorrowfully departed, leaving a tepee for her and her child. Tents are the sleeping quarters for other guests in this spring of 1859.
The Greeley coach is managed by William Butler Hickok and Pat Dolan. “Wild Bill,” fastidious and with shoulder length hair, began a career of killing two years later, while still a stageline employee. “Red” Dolan, Irish immigrant won distinction later as a Texas Ranger.
Pat Garrett, eastbound driver, wears buckskin and a red bandana. As a New Mexico sheriff some years later, he is forced to shoot and kill Billy the Kidd. His assistant, Tiburico Vasquez, is a California outlaw who took this job to scout gold shipments.
Eastbound “Go Back,” a runaway (name withheld), has been working as a man in Denver mines. In custody of Pinkerton detective, Roy Bean, who later becomes famous as the “Law West of the Pecos, she is reconciling to her enforced return to her Indiana parents and back to school.
We hope you are enjoying our little presentation.”
Station 15, Norton, Kansas (view from Southwest window)
