Often taught as an aside to the settling of America’s west, the tale of the Pony Express is fraught with danger, intrigue and lightening speed. It was the 1860s and as the Civil war ravaged the east, the new immigrants and settlers along the Oregon Trail craved news of battle and word of loved ones. The difficult terrain that lay between the two sides of the country was hard to traverse, lacking proper roads, street signs, even people. Only fast strong horses could make the journey.

“No danger or difficulty must check his speed or change his route, for the world is waiting for the news he shall fetch and carry….God speed to the boy and the pony.”

Western Journal of Commerce, Kansas City, 1860

The enterprise began with the Central Overland and Pikes Peak Express a freight company operating out west and owned by Alexander Majors, William Russell, and William Waddell. The young entrepreneurs saw the opportunity to make some extra money by carrying domestic mail along their roughly plotted freight routes.  They advertised for young men who were strong riders and hired the lightest and the quickest to carry the mail.

“WANTED: YOUNG SKINNY
Wiry fellows not over 18.
Must be expert riders,
willing to risk death daily.
Orphans preferred.
Wages $25.00 per week.”

Among the names now associated with the Pony Express, Buffalo Bill Cody was meant to have ridden with the group that had the government contract to carry the mail in its early days but records are sketchy. The first known trip along the Pony Express trail (which crossed California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri) was undertaken by Johnny Fry and Sam Hamilton who were said to cross the continent in ten days.

It costs $5.00 per half ounce to have the express riders carry your personal mail which was stored in a leather satchel called a mochila. The mochila was handed off between riders across the length of the journey to ensure the mail never stopped even when the horses had to.

There were two types of Pony Express Station (many still standing today): the home station and the relay station. The home stations were scattered along the route every 75 to 100 miles and offered a warm fire, cooking stove and bed for weary riders. They were manned by station keepers who kept the fire hot and took in mail. The relay stations existed every 5 to 20 miles and allowed for horse exchanges as well as fresh riders to pick up the mail trail. It was this network of stations, riders and horses that stretch the U.S. mail from one side of the continent to the other for the very first time.

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The Pony Express began in April 1860 and ended in November of 1861. In all that time only one bag of mail was ever lost. After only 19 months, the Pony Express went bankrupt, replaced as it was by more convenient message sending methods like the telegraph and the train. But while it lasted, this race across the prairie stood as testament to American determination and perseverance, that special brand of Yankee know ho that figures out how to get the job done. Every year, the National Pony Express Association undertakes a re-ride of the original trail setting out either from Missouri or

California and carrying a bag of mail from one side of the county to the other. Many of the riders are direct descendents of the original owners and riders and they are all volunteers who choose to reenact a special time in America’s history. A time when new frontiers finally succumbed to American ingenuity.

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