Home Station at Virginia Dale, Colorado
Virginia Dale, Colorado Home Station
I drove through Virginia Dale, located near the Wyoming and Colorado border. It’s about halfway between Fort Collins and Laramie. I intended to stop and look it over. However, a blizzard kicked up quite a fuss, so I kept driving. Virginia Dale was a home station on the old stage route. The notorious Jack Slade named it for his wife.
When they laid out the stagecoach routes across the Old West, they tried to follow an orderly pattern. Swing stations every eight to ten miles provided a place to change horses. These lonely outposts usually had one employee who helped feed and rest the horses for when the stage rolled in.
Western Town Beginnings
Every fifty miles along the trail, you could find a home station. Often Old West towns got their start this way. Usually built from rough lumber, passengers could spend the night or purchase needed items. Home stations also provided a social center for a wide radius as well. Folks from all over the countryside headed there whenever a special event took place.
Making Spiritual Sense
Sundays for many believers provide a home station. We roam through a week searching for direction each day, to help us make it to the next one. Then, along the trail, there’s a special stop that has more to offer than all the rest. It’s a day of worship, refreshment, and rest.
Paul says in Acts 20:7 that the home station for Christians is the first day of the week. John calls it in Revelation 1:10 “the Lord’s day.” God devised a good plan. He knew our body, mind, and spirit could stay strong on our journey with systematic renewal. He encourages us once a week to stop and be refreshed. Of course, we don’t have to follow His advice. And I suppose some wagons in the Old West could pass by the home stations. But that meant death to the horses and hardship to the passengers. I never heard of too many old timers being that dumb.
In a spiritual sense, the same could be said of you and me.
Stephen Bly
Circa 1989
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