Cannonball Stage Station State Historic Site

This historic site marks the location of the fifth stagecoach station after Bismarck on the Bismarck-to-Deadwood Trail, used from 1877-1880.

The booming stagecoach line linked the westernmost stop of the Northern Pacific Railroad at Bismarck to the gold fields of the Black Hills. By early summer 1877, daily stages were departing to the hills. Whenever a stage arrived at the Cannonball Station, spent horses were replaced with fresh teams, and passengers stretched their weary bodies and ate the meager fare.

The stage station overlooked the Cannonball River fifteen miles southeast of Carson, Grant County. Visitors stopping at the station today will find the remains of two dugouts (assumed to be the station building and an unknown building) and the rectangular outline of a barn.