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Pony Express Pony Express National Historic Trail Pony Express Pony Express National Historic Trail National Park Service Bureau of Land Management Official Map & Department of the Interior Forest Service Guide - Large Print Department of Agriculture Formatted for ADA standards at 11” x 17” print size. The pony-rider was usually a to get a message from little bit of a man, brimful of President James K. Polk spirit and endurance. to California. By the —Mark Twain late 1850s a half million people had migrated Overland Mail West, and they wanted The idea behind the Pony up-to-date news from Express, a horseback home. Something had to relay mail service, goes be done to deliver mail back to at least ancient faster and to improve Rome and Persia. In communication in the 13th-century China expanding nation. Marco Polo described a [captions] “system of post-horses Russell, Majors & Waddell in 1860: by which the Great Khan Entrepreneurs of the Pony Express. sends his dispatches.” A mochila fit over the saddle. Four, locked pockets held mail. Bible inscribed: “Presented Oregon missionary by Russell, Majors & Waddell.” Marcus Whitman in 1843 Johnny Fry, 1860, one of first westbound Pony proposed using horse riders. © Joseph Museum, Mo./Russell, Waddell, relays to deliver mail Fry, saddle and mochila; © Majors Historical Foundation/Majors; © Joe Nardone Collection/ from the Missouri River Bible to the Columbia River © St. Joseph Museum, Mo./stamps signature. © Wells Fargo Bank/poster, © Gilcrease in 40 days. But in 1845 Museum, Tulsa, Okla./Coming and Going of it still took six months the Pony Express, 1900, Frederic Remington Rev. 02/01/13 News from Home! The government struggled to improve transcontinental mail service. In 1855 The emigrants who moved West in the mid­ Congress even appropriated $30,000 to see 1800s anxiously awaited mail from home. if camels could carry mail from Texas to But mail took months to arrive, and by then California—they proved impractical. John the news was old. Westerners demanded Butterfield won a $600,000 contract in 1857 better mail service. Congress established that required mail delivery within 25 days. postal service to the Pacific Coast in 1847 His overland stagecoach service began in and, in 1851, set the rate for a half-ounce 1858 on a 2,800-mile route that left Fort letter at three cents for delivery if less than Smith, Ark. and reached San Francisco via 3,000 miles and six cents if it went farther. El Paso, Tex. and Yuma, in Arizona Territory. Private contractors handled the business, Despite its length and scarcity of water, no which required huge government subsidies. snowbound mountains blocked this route. With the discovery of gold, followed Powerful southern political interests kept by statehood, California’s population government subsidies on these southern mushroomed, increasing the urgency for trails. With civil war threatening to close better communication. In 1848 the U.S. southern routes, northern politicians sought Post Office awarded a contract to the Pacific a central route. Benjamin F. Ficklin had Mail Steamship Company to carry mail carried U.S. Army dispatches from Utah to California. The mail traveled by ship Territory and proposed that the government from New York to Panama, moved across could provide express mail service using a Panama by rail, then by ship again to San horse relay. California Sen. William Gwin Francisco. The goal, getting a letter from the backed the idea. East in three to four weeks, was seldom met. Planning the Pony but to the dismay of his partners, Russell committed to opening the express mail Express: Seize the service on the central route in April 1860. Opportunity The three partners started a new firm, the William H. Russell of the freighting firm Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak of Russell, Majors & Waddell created the Express Company (C.O.C.& P.P.)—the Pony Express almost by accident. Russell, official name of the Pony Express. Russell William B. Waddell, and Alexander Majors raised money in New York and political were Missouri business partners with vast support in Washington, D.C.; Majors experience hauling cargo and passengers— managed daily operations; and Waddell and a great interest in government mail ran the home office. The company had 67 contracts. Their firm already provided days to hire riders, station keepers, and mail mail and stagecoach service between the handlers and buy horses, food, and other Missouri River and Salt Lake City. supplies and distribute them to stations across the route (some were not yet built or Russell felt that a horse relay, a Pony even located). Express, would promote his company and gather congressional support to win Majors organized the route into five the mail contract for a central overland divisions, numbered east to west. The first route. He was confident this expensive leg ran from St. Joseph, Mo., to Fort Kearny, advertisement would pay off in the long Nebraska Territory on the Platte River. The run, although Majors and Waddell were not second went to Horseshoe Station near Fort so sure. With the backing of Senator Gwin Laramie, Wyoming Territory. These traced the route of the Oregon and California C.O.C.& P.P. established home stations trails, with a dip into today’s Colorado at every 75 to 100 miles (to house riders Julesburg. The third took the emigrant trail between runs) and smaller relay stations to Fort Bridger and the Salt Lake Valley in every 10 to 15 miles (to provide riders with Utah. The fourth, to cross the Great Basin, fresh horses). The names of some of the followed a route opened in 1858 by James Pony stations—Kearny, Chimney Rock, Simpson that ran south of the Great Salt Scotts Bluff, Fort Laramie, Sweetwater, Fort Lake desert to Roberts Creek Station, north Bridger—were already famous in western of today’s Eureka, Nev. The fifth leg was the history. Many were upgraded from existing toughest of the trip, crossing the Nevada stagecoach stations, but some stations were desert and rugged Sierra Nevada, finally built from scratch. The operation expanded arriving at Sacramento and San Francisco, from 86 stations on the Pony’s first run to Calif. 147 stations by mid-1861. God Speed to the Boy Pony employed some characters—not all living up to the pledge of obedience and and the Pony abstinence befitting a gentleman. Division Superintendent Jack Slade ran wild when “Men Wanted! . Men familiar with the drunk but “kept the road cleared of robbers management of horses, as hostlers or riders and horse thieves.” Some say Assistant on the Overland Express Route via Salt Station Tender James Butler “Wild Bill” Lake City. Wages $50 per month.” Hickock shot agent David McCanles Sacramento Union, March 19,1860 and two others at Rock Creek Station in Nebraska. “Buffalo Bill” Cody never rode So announced newspaper ads. Hires ranged for the Pony Express, but he used his Wild from teenagers to about age 40. Weight West Show to promote the Pony’s legend restrictions were strict. Riders had to weigh and romance. less than 120 pounds and carry 20 pounds of mail and 25 pounds of equipment. Horses were selected for swiftness and endurance. Russell advertised for “200 Some riders were given an inscribed leather grey mares, from four to seven years old, Bible (see far left). Employees took this not to exceed fifteen hands high, well oath: “While I am in the employ of A. broke to the saddle and warranted sound.” Majors, I agree not to use profane language, The company bought 400 to 500 horses, not to get drunk, not to gamble, not to treat many thoroughbreds for eastern runs and animals cruelly, and not to do anything California mustangs for western stretches. else that is incompatible with the conduct Horses averaged 10 miles per hour, at times of a gentleman. And I agree, if I violate galloping up to 25 miles per hour. During any of the above conditions, to accept my his route of 75 to 100 miles a rider changed discharge without any pay for my services.” horses eight to 10 times. The job was exacting and not for the faint of heart. Mail traveled in four, locked leather boxes sewn onto the corners of a leather The company employed between 80 and mochila (knapsack) that fit over the saddle. 100 riders and several hundred station The design allowed for fast removal and workers. Riders earned wages plus placement on a fresh horse. The exchange room and board. They joked that the of horses and mail was more casual than company’s initials, C.O.C.& P.P., stood legend has it. Riders often stopped to eat for “Clean Out of Cash & Poor Pay.” The or drink and stretch their legs, but Mark Twain wrote that the “transfer of rider and and the swift phantom of the desert was mail-bag was made in the twinkling of an gone before we could get our heads out of eye.” Twain also reported that from his the windows.” stagecoach he “heard only a whiz and a hail, Great Race Against people turned out to watch the Antelope arrive with the first mail. The crowd lit Time: The First Rides bonfires and held a boisterous celebration. On April 3, 1860, after weeks of frenzied The Pony Express charged five dollars per preparation, the day for the first rides half-ounce for mail (about $85 in today’s arrived. The St. Joseph Daily Gazette money), later reducing the fee to one dollar. declared it would “forward, by the first At first the Pony ran once a week in each Pony Express, the first and only newspaper direction.
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