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The Pony Express
By Sheila O'Connor

It's famous throughout the world but lasted a mere 19 months. Nonetheless, its memory has lasted much, much longer. It's the Pony Express which began in St. Joseph, Missouri. And next year 2010, the grand old dame of nostalgia and romantic history will be 150 years old. Not bad for an entity that actually was tough going for those who were the riders in the saddle.

Success

The Pony, as it was affectionately known, came to spread important news, shrink a continent and bind a nation that was being ripped apart by civil war. So why was it needed? By the late 1850s, half a million people had moved West after gold was found and California became a state, but they wanted news of current events at home.

Three partners, Russell, Majors & Waddell set up the company that would run the Pony Express but they had to do it in a big rush. The Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company (later the Pony Express) had only 67 days in which to hire riders, station keepers, mail handlers as well as buy horses, food and other supplies. They then had to distribute them to stations across the route, some of which hadn't even been built yet! Amazingly, within 90 days, the whole operation was up and running. Such was the rush at the time, that the riders must have wondered if there was enough infrastructure in place for them to even get paid. They quipped that the initials of the company really stood for "Clean Out of Cash and Poor Pay."

First Rider

But despite that, with great fanfare, Johnny Fry, the first rider, bolted from the stables at St. Joseph, Missouri on April 3, 1860 for the 2,000 mile ride to Sacramento, California. A special edition of the St. Joseph Daily Gazette went with him. That first pony actually carried 5 telegrams, 49 letters and several newspapers printed on-light-weight paper. Bonfires were lit and crowds cheered as they greeted the riders arriving from their first ride. Delivery started out as once a week but it soon increased to twice. And the cost? That was $5 per half ounce (that would equate to a whopping $85 today) but it was later reduced to $1 per half ounce. The rider for St. Joe left Sacramento in the early hours of April 4, 2009. There was a celebration in San Francisco on April 3 and as part of a ceremony, a rider took the mail to the steamer. By the time the mail went up the Sacramento River to Sacramento, it was actually the 4th of April.

One famous Pony Express rider included Buffalo Bill who rode over 320 miles in 21 hours and exhausted 20 horses. Another record was set by John "Jack" Keetley who covered another rider's run and rode 340 miles in 31 hours, all without taking a rest! That is, unless you count the last few minutes where he was removed from the saddle - sound asleep!

How did it work

Worrying about allowing the horses to sleep was at least something the riders didn't have to do. No indeed. They were changed every 10-15 miles so as not to wear them out and riders themselves were changed over every 100 miles so as not to fatigue them either. A rider would change horses 8 to 10 times in his 100-mile route. Still, each horseman would ride at breakneck speed for nearly 6 hours - quite a feat. The route would cross the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Sacramento. Horses traveled at a fast trot, about 10 miles per hour, as the horses were too valuable to risk injuring by riders pushing them to a faster gait.

Work continued and stations continued to be built for the riders, and eventually operations expanded from 86 stations on the Pony's first run to 147 stations by mid - 1861. Mustangs and thoroughbreds were the horses of choice, due to their durability. But no more than 165 lbs of weight were allowed on each horse, and that included the weight of the rider and Mochila (saddle used to hold the mail). The Mochila was placed on top of the saddle and the rider sat on it. Mochila is a rectangular piece of leather with pockets on the corner.

"The Mochila, in fact, had with four locked pockets and was placed over the horse. That way it could be slung from horse to horse easily," says Cindy Daffron, Director of Development at the Pony Express Museum.

While weight was strict, it appears the age of the riders wasn't and legend has it that age ranged from the tender age of 11 to 40 years of age.

Time it took

So how long did this "new-fangled" way of delivering the mail take? Considering that the traditional steamship could take anywhere up to a month, delivery by horse was only 10 days in the summer or 12-16 days in the winter, with the fastest delivery being 7 days. This was a huge time-saver

The inaugural speech by Abraham Lincoln, for instance, took 7 days to get from the east coast to Sacramento and the rider knew he was carrying an important historical document in his bag. At that time 7 days was the fastest any mail had ever been sent anywhere in the world.

Dangers they faced

But the route wasn't without difficulties. Time, terrain and hostile Indians were all in a day's work for these riders. Yet these weren't actually the worst problems. Weather was actually the worst factor in delivering the mail and it turned out to be the greatest challenge for the company. One rider fell asleep against a tree in a snowstorm and without the good fortune of a rabbit scrambling across his legs and waking him up, he would no doubt have died in the cold.

Another rider watched as a tornado whipped up close beside him in Nebraska and he had to ride for his life. Even mosquitoes were an issue. One rider, Jay G. Kelley, said: "The mosquitoes were so thick that it was difficult to tell whether a man was white or black."

Was the pay worth it?

So was the pay worth it for all the hazards the riders had to endure? Yes, it was. Although many risked life and limb, the pay was a solid $50/month, quite a tidy sum in those days, plus room and board.

Demise

And yet the demise of the Pony Express happened, just as some say the West was becoming wilder and wilder. It was in fact the telegraph, which took over. Morse had completed his series of dots and dashes and messages could be transmitted in minutes instead of hours. Horses and stagecoaches were no longer needed. In addition, money problems, worsened by Indian attacks on both Pony Express stations and its riders plagued the enterprise and then the Civil War erupted.

In the end, the Pony Express never made the huge fortune the founders had expected and the venture proved unprofitable. The company went bankrupt and was closed down. But not before it had made 300 runs each way traveling over 600,000 miles and carrying more than 33,000 pieces of mail. October 26, 1861 was the last day of the Pony Express. But while the Pony Express no longer lives on, its legend does. It is actually one of the best-known and loved pieces of Americana known both in the US and overseas.

So what did it achieve?

The Pony Express did do a lot of good while it was here. Before its demise, the Pony Express delivered Lincoln's March 4 message to California in the fastest time ever - 7 day and 17 hours, and this news helped the state stay loyal. Again, in April 1861, the Pony Express delivered word of the outbreak of the Civil War. Right up to its last run in November 1861, the Pony Express brought news of battles and lists of dead and wounded to westerners, anxious for news.

And the riders knew they were part of history in the making. As one rider, William Campbell, said: "One of the hardest rides I ever had made was when I carried President Lincoln's inaugural address from the telegraph station at Fort Kearne. Such things made every Pony Express rider feel that he was helping to make history."

Today

Today the National Pony Express Association (NPEA) continues that history by riding the trail in a 10 day round-the-clock, non-stop event every year. More than 500 rides follow a 1,943-mile route that replicates the original one. Of course today communication has been changed even further. Those dots and dashes are nothing but a vague memory as faxes and emails have taken over.

It's not surprising to know that today more email messages are sent than postal mail. More than 6 trillion bits of data per second, in fact. Could it be that the WWW of the "Wild Wild West" days has been replaced by another WWW, that of the "World Wide Web"?

Don't miss the Pony Express and St. Joseph.

Other sights

Other major things to see in the town of St. Joseph include the home of Jesse James who was gunned down by one of his own gang members while his back was turned; the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art; the Glore Psychiatric Museum which shocks the visitor by how the mentally ill were treated and the Patee House which has been described as one of the Best Wild West Museums and was the St. Joseph headquarters of the Pony Express. You can even visit the graves of two of the Pony Express riders at the Mount Mora Cemetery. St. Joseph is also the birthplace of the late, well-known anchorman, Walter Cronkite

For the anniversary

The year 2010 will be the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express and St. Joseph is going to town on the celebration. The Patee House will have a dance. There will be period food and chuck wagon breakfasts offered. On April 3rd there will be a multitude of celebrations for the family, so this is a good weekend to attend the Sesquicentennial events. The stable doors of the Pony Express will even be opened, one of the few times that has happened. Letters mailed out at that time will be stamped "Pony Express."

For more information contact the St. Joseph CVB:
www.stjomo.com

For a great place to stay, try the

Stoney Creek Inn:
www.stoneycreekinn.com

Rafter G. Chuck Wagon:
www.facesofag.com/raftergs.html

Pony Express:
www.stjoseph.net/ponyexpresss
or www.ponyexpress.org

Mount Mora Cemetery:
www.mountmora.org

Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art:
www.albrecht-kemper.org

Glore Psychiatric Museum
www.stjosephmuseum.org

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