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Pony Express
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The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the North American continent from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 1860 to October 1861. From 1866 until 1990, the Pony Express logo was used in security business. Presently, "Pony Express" is a trademark for postal services in Russia (by Freight Link) and the US (by the United States Postal Service).
The original fast mail service had messages carried by horseback riders relay across the prairies, plains, deserts, and mountains of the Western United States.
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The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the North American continent from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 1860 to October 1861. From 1866 until 1990, the Pony Express logo was used in security business. Presently, "Pony Express" is a trademark for postal services in Russia (by Freight Link) and the US (by the United States Postal Service).
The original fast mail service had messages carried by horseback riders relay across the prairies, plains, deserts, and mountains of the Western United States. It briefly reduced the time for mail to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to around ten days.
By traveling an easier shorter route and using mounted riders rather than stagecoaches, the founders of the Pony Express hoped to establish their service as a faster and more reliable conduit for the mail and win away the exclusive government mail contract.
The Pony Express demonstrated that a unified transcontinental system could be built and operated continuously year around — something not seen since the times of the Romans in Europe or Mongols in Asia. Since its replacement by the First Transcontinental Telegraph, the Pony Express has become part of the romance of the American West. Its reliance on the ability and endurance of the individual riders and horses over technological innovation is part of "American rugged individualism".
Operation
Eventually, everything was removed except one revolver and a water sack to cut down on the weight. In case of emergencies there are several documented cases where a given rider rode two stages back to back--over 20 hours on a galloping horse. The riders rode day and night, winter and summer. Departures were from both the mid-west and the far west. Its unknown if they tried crossing the Sierras in winter but, they certainly crossed central Nevada. There was a telegraph station in Carson City, Nevada, by 1860. The riders received $25 per week as pay. A comparable wage for unskilled labor was about $1/day for a 12 hour day's labor.
Majors had acquired from 420 to 500 horses for the project, and these averaged about 14½ hands (1.47 m) high and averaging a very light 900 pounds (410 kg) each, thus the name pony was appropriate, even if not strictly correct for all the horses.
Route of the Pony Express
The roughly route roughly followed the Oregon Trail, and California Trail to Fort Bridger in Wyoming and then the Mormon Trail to Salt Lake City, Utah. From there it roughly followed the Central Nevada Route to Carson City, Nevada before passing over the Sierra Nevadas into Sacramento, California.
The route started at St. Joseph, Missouri on the Missouri River, it then followed what is modern day US 36—the Pony Express Highway—to Marysville, Kansas, where it turned northwest following Little Blue River to Fort Kearney in Nebraska. Through Nebraska it followed the Great Platte River Road, cutting through Gothenburg, Nebraska and passing Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock, and Scotts Bluff, clipping the edge of Colorado at Julesburg, Colorado, before arriving at Fort Laramie in Wyoming. From there it followed the Sweetwater River, passing Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, and Split Rock, to Fort Caspar, through South Pass to Fort Bridger and then down to Salt Lake City. From Salt Lake City it generally followed the Central Nevada Route blazed by Captain James H. Simpson of the Corps. of Topographical Engineers in 1859. This route roughly follows today's U.S. Highway 50 across Nevada and Utah. It crossed the Great Basin, the Utah-Nevada Desert, and the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe before arriving in Sacramento. Mail was then sent via steamer down the Sacramento River to San Francisco. On a few instances when the steamer was missed, riders took the mail via horseback to Oakland, California.
The first ride
The rides were scheduled to leave San Francisco and St. Joseph simultaneously on April 3, 1860 although the westbound route has gotten more publicity. No photographs of riders beginning in either direction are known and none are believed to exist.
Westbound
The messenger delivering the mochila from New York and Washington missed a connection in Detroit and arrived in Hannibal, Missouri, two hours late. The railroad cleared the track and dispatched a special locomotive called the "Missouri" with a one-car train to make the 206-mile (332 km) trek across the state in a record 4 hours, 51 minutes — an average of 40 miles per hour (64 km/h). It arrived at Olive and 8th Street — a few blocks from the company's new headquarters in a hotel at Patee House at 12th Street and Pennsylvania and the company's nearby stables on Pennsylvania. The first pouch contained 49 letters, five private telegrams, and some papers for San Francisco and intermediate points.
St. Joseph Mayor M. Jeff Thompson, William H. Russell and Alexander Majors gave speeches before the mochila was handed off. There is debate over who actually was the first rider. The ride began at about 7:15 p.m. The St. Joseph Gazette was the only newspaper included in the bag.
The first horse-ridden leg of the Express was only about a half mile (800 m) from the Express stables/railroad area to the Missouri River ferry at the foot of Jules Street. Johnny Fry is credited as the first westbound rider who carried the pouch across the Missouri River ferry to Elwood, Kansas. Reports indicated that horse and rider crossed the river; however, subsequently, the courier crossed the river without a horse, getting the mount at a stable on the other side.
However, the identity of the first rider has long been in dispute. The Weekly West (April 4, 1860) reported Johnson William Richardson was the first rider (see Footnote 358 ).
Nevertheless, the first westbound mochila reached its destination, San Francisco, on April 14, at 1:00 a.m.
Eastbound
James Randall is credited as the first rider from the San Francisco Alta telegraph office since he was on the steamship Antelope to go to Sacramento. At 2:45 a.m., William (Sam) Hamilton was the first rider to begin the journey from Sacramento.
Closing and Legacy
Although the Pony Express proved that the central/northern mail route was viable, Russell, Majors, and Waddell did not get the contract to deliver mail over the route. The contract was instead awarded to Jeremy Dehut in March 1861, who had taken over the southern Congressionally favored Butterfield Overland Mail Stage Line. Holladay took over the Russell, Majors and Waddell stations for his stagecoaches. Unfortunately shortly after the contract was awarded the start of the American Civil War caused the stage line to cease operation. From March 1861, the Pony Express only ran mail between Salt Lake City and Sacramento. The Pony Express announced its closure on October 26, 1861, two days after the Transcontinental Telegraph reached Salt Lake City and connected Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California. Other telegraph lines connected points along the line and other cities in the east and west coast.
The Pony Express had grossed $90,000 and lost $200,000. In 1866, after the American Civil War was over, Holladay sold the Pony Express assets along with the remnants of the Butterfield Stage to Wells Fargo for $1.5 million.
Wells Fargo used the Pony Express logo for its guard and armored car service. The logo continued to be used when other companies took over the security business into the 1990s. Effective 2001, the Pony Express logo was no longer used for security businesses since the business has been sold.
In June 2006, the United States Postal Service announced it had trademarked "Pony Express" along with Air Mail.
"Pony Express" is a trademarked name used by Freight Link international courier services company in Russia; their logo is also similar to the one trademarked by United States Postal Service with "Since 1860" written under the image.
Legacy
Pony Express statues are in Sacramento; Stateline, Nevada; Reno, Nevada; Salt Lake City; Casper, Wyoming; Julesburg, Colorado; Marysville, Kansas; North Kansas City, Missouri; and St. Joseph. The original and most famous is the one dedicated on April 20, 1940, in St. Joseph. It was sculpted by Hermon Atkins MacNeil. It is at City Hall Park. The city has rejected proposals to move it to the park opposite the stables.
McGraw Hill and produced the game PONY EXPRESS RIDER in 1996. In the game, the Pony Express helps the Union uncover the plans of the Knights of the Golden Circle.
Eagle Mountain, Utah located on the original Pony Express Trail in Utah has several locations and events that commemorate the Pony Express. Pony Express Boulevard in Eagle Mountain, Utah may be the only street that is built on the original Pony Express Trail that is named after the Pony Express. Pony Express Days, the annual community celebration of Eagle Mountain, are celebrated the first week of June of each year and is celebrated with a carnival, parade, concerts, and a walk/run race along the Pony Express Trail. The Alpine School Districts's Pony Express Elementary School is located in Eagle Mountain and is a K-5 elementary school that opened in 2002 and has a Pony Express theme to its interior including rooms named after stops along the Pony Express trail, statues, and maps of the Pony Express Trail. Eagle Mountain also has an official Pony Express monument on the site of the original Joe's Dug Out station on the Pony Express Trail. Eagle Mountain also has neighborhoods named after stations on the Pony Express Trail such as: "Cold Spring," "Kennekuk," "Ash Point," "Kiowa," "Liberty Farm," "Plum Creek," "Diamond Springs," "Willow Springs," "Three Crossings," "Friday's Station," and has a major road named "Sweetwater" and a charter High School named "Rockwell."
Publication
See also
External links
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