Rock Creek Station was built primarily to serve the stagecoach and Pony Express. But the Oregon-bound emigrants did stop here to purchase supplies or camp.

Rock Creek Station owner David McCanless eventually built a toll bridge here. The charge: between 10 and 50 cents, depending on how well-off the emigrant family looked that day.

Emigrant Matthew Field, while camping at Rock Creek Station:
"We are all very well and growing fat; not on buffalo however; for the lords of the prairie are far in advance of us. We had turtle soup last night for supper and that ain't bad; even when eaten out of tin plates and squatting on the grass."