Information from Clayton County Stories by Marion Beimfohr, 1980:
Pony Hollow --
When Roberts Creek gets into Wagner Township, it vanishes underground. There are many sink holes in this part, and underground caverns. The creek surfaces, flows a distance, then goes underground again. It is said this happens about fifteen times before it decides to stay above ground. It gets a neew name, and thereby hangs a "tail" -- it is thereby Pony Creek from there until it empties into the Turkey River near Elkader. There are two stories of how Pony Creek got its name. The first story is that Indians would bring their surplus horses to the creek bottom where there was abundant grass, and offer them for sale to early settlers. The other story concerns a settler named Gool who lived in the creek bottom in 1839. He had livestock on his farm. His stock and chickens seemed to decrease in numbers whenever Indians were encamped nearby. To balance accounts, he took two of their ponies on the sly, went to Illinois with them, where he exchanged them for cattle. These he brought back, and made a display of prosperity quite above his neighbors. To perpetuate the rememebrance of this sudden prosperity, his neighbors called the creek "Pony Creek" The Reverend Elisha Warner, pioneer minister, said at an Old Settlers Reunion in 1873, that whenever a horse was lost it was sure to turn up in Pony Hollow.
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