A historical society that reveres the celebration of history as much as the history itself has established a monument to the Pony Express Trail in an unlikely place _ the front yard of a brothel.

It turns out the 1860s mail route from St. Joseph, Mo., to California passed smack dab through the middle of the property now home to the Moonlite Bunnyranch.

Leaders of a local chapter of E Clampus Vitus said they would induct flamboyant brothel owner Dennis Hof as an official"Clamper"at a dedication Saturday of the stone monument and plaque in front of the bordello 8 miles east of Carson City.

"It just happens to be on his property,"said Marc Bebout, president of the Julia Bulette chapter formed in Virginia City in 1864 and named after the Comstock's famous"prostitute with a heart of gold."

"Mound House was a very busy area in the late 1800s, early 1900s. We want to preserve for time not only the Pony Express site but also the site of the Carson-Colorado and Virginia-Truckee Railroad,"he said.

Some historians in academia say the Clampers are known best for heavy drinking at their gatherings and don't necessarily let the facts get in the way of a good story.

But they acknowledge the Clampers are accurate in their placement of the new marker. And one of the most respected Pony Express experts gives them credit for explaining that the trail extended to the San Francisco Bay Area, rather than stopping in Sacramento, as many accounts state.

"I have no problem with it being in front of a brothel,"said Joseph Nardone of Laguna Beach, Calif., national executive director of the Pony Express Trail Association.

"The Overland Trail, the old stagecoach crossing, the telegraph line _ it's about 80 yards south of their front door,"he said from Rock Springs, Wyo., where he was placing trail markers.

Nardone, a member of an E Clampus Vitus chapter, said the name means nothing but gibberish in Latin.

"One of their quotes in Latin is, `We're absurd.'I like them because they like to mark things historically but they don't really take the time to find out the real history. It's usually more of an excuse to have a good party."

The new plaque is accurate, but"a lot of the stuff they put out about the Pony Express is old stuff, incorrect, fake lore versus truth,"Nardone said.

"They don't do it intentionally,"he said."They say they got it out of a book and I have to tell them the book has been proven wrong."

Clampers say their critics take all the fun out of history.

"We're not all straight-laced about it,"Bebout admits.

"Yes, we've been known to drink _ a lot. But the history part and preserving it is our biggest concern."

Bebout said the historical society started in Europe in the early 1600s and was embraced by coal miners in Virginia in 1800s before it was resurrected in the West, especially in Gold Rush towns of California.

Nevada state archivist Guy Rocha took the group to task a few years back in one of his articles debunking myths of the Old West for an E Clampus Vitus plaque at nearby Dayton that says Ulysses S. Grant spoke from the balcony of the Odeon Hall after leaving the White House in 1877.

Rocha said various newspaper accounts make it clear Grant passed through town, but did not stop on his way to Virginia City.

Just off U.S. Highway 50, past Jacob's Ladder Christian Childcare Center, Benny's Auto Body and Tussey's Guns, the Moonlite Bunnyranch sits on a hill dotted with sage brush.

The 4-foot tall stone marker with the brown plaque and gold lettering, topped with a 3-foot long piece of rail, sits about 45 feet inside the white wooden fence marking the brothel property.

A sign on the fence reads,"Warning: Adult Sexual Entertainment 300 Yards Ahead."

Chuck Roberts, chairman of the Mound House Regional Advisory Committee who often fields community complaints about the brothel, said he doesn't necessarily object to marking the trail there.

"I supposed if it's true, there's no reason not to put it there,"Roberts said.

"The down side is you are going to put up an historic marker to share information. I'm not sure some evangelical tourist from a Southern church is going to want to bebop by there to view the historical marker."

Hof, whose answering machine instructs callers to leave a message for"America's Pimp,"regularly promotes his brothel on Howard Stern's radio show and got in trouble with Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura for putting the ex pro-wrestler's name on a brothel room he visited as a Navy SEAL. Hof said Friday that 10 to 20 tourists stop a day to take pictures of the brothel and he expects more now that the historical marker is in place.

"If the Bunnyranch had been here on the Pony Express Trail 150 years ago,"he said,"it would probably have added a day or two to the trip."

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On the Net:

National Park Service Pony Express National Historic Trail: http://www.nps.gov/poex/poex.htm

National Pony Express Association: http://gorp.com/gorp/publishers/fulcrum/pony_ex9.htm