Mountain Dell/Dale/Ephraim Hanks Station (N40 46 52.8 W111 40 58.8) 

Location: NE1/4SW1/4 Section 33, Township 1 North, Range 2 East, Salt Lake Meridian, about 8¾ miles from Wheaton Springs. A vandalized monument in the NW1/4 of the NW1/4 of Section 36 presently marks the location of the assumed station site.

The contract lists the 7th Utah station as being in “Mountain Dale.” It was also called Big Canyon Creek, and often, Hanks Station for Ephraim Hanks who managed the place. This is another station the exact location of which has been much debated. It stood a distance up the slope from Little Dell Reservoir (The site is owned by SLC and there is an entrance fee to get closer to where the monument is?), but neither study of contemporary accounts nor an extensive archaeological dig conducted by researchers from BYU has answered the question of the actual station site. 

Station keeper Ephraim Hanks was a colorful character on the Mormon frontier. It was widely rumored that he was a leading figure among a group of Mormon “hit-men” called the Danites, or Destroying Angels. 

http://www.expeditionutah.com/featured-trails/pony-express-trail/utah-pony-express-stations/ 

Fike and Headley suggest two possible locations for this site. The traditional site is located eight and three-fourths miles from Wheaton Springs. A second possible site exists at the mouth of present Freeze Creek. The 1861 mail contract referred to this station as Mountain Dale, but it was also known as Mountain Dell, Big Canyon, and Hanks. Ephraim Hanks served as stationkeeper at the log structure. A vandalized marker stood near the traditional site in 1979.

Mattie Little, daughter of Pony Express rider George Edwin Little, wrote:

One day father was bringing in the mail from the east to the station at Mountain Dell. There was a heavy snow storm came up and crossing over Little Mountain, the snow became so heavy and deep that his horse gave out and he had to leave him. He took his pocket knife and cut the mail pouches open putting the mail inside his shirt. Then he broke trail over to Mountain Dell, arriving there at 3 [a.m.]. The next morning he rode a horse bareback to Salt Lake and delivered the mail to the Old Salt Lake House which was the home station. Ephraim Hanks his stepfather road back up to the canyon next morning and brought in the horse. . . . 

Several other sources mention Mountain Dell or Mountain Dale as the relay station before Salt Lake City. Bishop and Henderson identify the site as Mountain Dale, while others refer to it as Mountain Dell.

Fike and Headley identify Big Canyon as another name for the Mountain Dell/Dale Station.  Several other sources identify Big Canyon as a station. Bloss places Big Canyon Creek between Snyder's Mill and Salt Lake City, while Pierson locates the site between Dixie Creek and Mountain Dell.  The Settles, as mentioned earlier, called the station Big Canyon or Snyder's Mill.

http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/poex/hrs/hrs6b.htm#104