The Pony Express was almost always included as either an opening act or a finale. The Pony Express vignette had about as much to do with reality as motorcycles would have had to do with the Pony Express then.
But it raised public awareness. As a general rule, they were young men, usually late teens on up to early 20s. They were lightweight even for the time; sinewy and of course really good riders. To ride miles, potentially four times a week, in all kinds of weather, day and night, you have to be a top rider with a lot of endurance. Some riders lasted a couple of rides and would leave.
There were quite strict rules for the riders. Two of the most important were that they were not allowed to drink alcohol, and that they were forbidden from using curse words. Russell is a fascinating character. His vision was to create an empire transporting goods, people, and information everywhere west of the Missouri River to California.
They had elements of that empire in place even before they started the Pony Express. They had a freight business where they delivered all sorts of goods, mostly for the U. Army, which was their biggest customer. They had a stagecoach business, a bank, and an insurance company. The hardest part of the Sierra Nevada would have been in winter. There would be snow drifts and the tracks are relatively narrow. You could fit a horse, sometimes two horses, but if there was a wagon in front of you, you had to wait until you got to a spot where you could get around it.
The desert was also very dangerous. If you knew where the path was, you were fine. In most places it was relatively well marked. But west of Salt Lake, in the desert, if you went off course a bit you could suddenly find yourself in a lot of trouble.
Nick Wilson is an interesting character. He submitted a written statement that discussed the reasons why he used the bonds to secure acceptances against them. January 29 Russell is indicted by a grand jury for the District of Columbia for cheat, defraud and impoverishing the United States. Floyd was indicted because his signature was on the bonds. Russell is saved from prosecution because the approaching Civil War interfered with the case.
During January, one state after another voted to secede from the Union. That made the country focus on these events as opposed to the bond scandal. Eventually the indictment was quashed. Kansas becomes the 34th slave-free State of the Union. However, the government ordered the firm to hand over the western half of the route to the Overland Mail Company who operated the Butterfield Line in the south.
The Union would not pay any company on a mail contract that would take the route through a state that has seceded. In this case, specifically Arkansas and Texas. The government still had 2 years left on O. Wounded, Haslam completed the mile run in a record 8 hours and 20 minutes. None of the bonds were recovered. April 12, South Carolina troops fire on Forth Sumter. In California and along the route not yet connected by telegraph, westerners eagerly await news from the Pony Express on the Civil War in the east.
Wells Fargo becomes the temporary agent for the western route until the Overland Mail Company takes over in July. April 26, Under pressure, Russell resigns as president of the C. Express Company.
Fry would later be killed in a shootout with Missouri raiders near Baxter Springs, Kansas. Due to growing problems with north and south sentiments in St.
Joseph, public schools are shut down until October, A gunfight ensued and three men, including McCanles, were shot dead.
Both Hickok and the stationkeeper, Horace Wellman, were charged with murder. A judge later acquitted both. This reduces the Pony Express run to seven days.
August 1, Mark Twain Samuel L. Clemens encounters a Pony Express rider in western Nebraska. August 13, By this date, Pony Express news was being telegraphed to San Francisco a whole two days before Pony Express letters would arrive. But by the time the wiry year-old completed his assigned run, the situation had changed. Must be expert pony riders willing to risk death daily.
The Northern Paiutes were on the warpath, just one month after the Pony Express began service, and the next rider scheduled refused to get in the saddle. Haslam, however, remained undeterred by the Indian scare. Riding over alkali flats and parched desert, he pushed through to Smith Creek, where, after miles, he slid off of his pony for a brief rest before making the even more harrowing return run. Arriving at Cold Springs, Haslam found that the Paiutes had burned the station, killed the keeper and run off the relief horses.
His dedication was exceptional, but he was not alone. Many Pony riders were willing to risk their backsides to deliver the mail in a timely fashion. It has been years since one of the most remarkable enterprises in American history carried the mail and the day. Yet, most of us can easily imagine these lone young riders racing the wind across the open plains, fleeing Indian pursuers.
Yes, the Pony Express still stirs the imagination, conjuring a romantic but gritty picture. Look a little closer, though, and something else becomes clear: The Pony Express was, despite the Herculean efforts of Pony Bob and his fellows, also a terrible flop. It is not difficult to find a failed business whose name lives on long after its collapse. What is remarkable is for a failed business to be remembered not for its disappointing performance but for its determination and grit.
For such a venture to be romanticized, commemorated and held in awe by the public is high praise indeed. That is the legacy of the Pony Express. On the sesquicentennial of the first ride and, on that of the last ride, less than 19 months off , much of the nation is celebrating and singing the praises of a small group of men—many of them mere boys—who set out to provide a service that ultimately proved an economic failure.
The Pony Express started out as a very good idea. Founders William Russell, Alexander Majors and William Waddell, despite popular myths to the contrary, were not rough drovers or confidence men.
Rather, they were well-established businessmen with a successful record of providing freight service to both the U. Army in the West and civilian mercantile efforts, which included the movement of merchandise over the Santa Fe Trail. These men recognized a need for improved communications between the Eastern United States and the burgeoning communities in California. With more than a half-million people already settled west of the Rocky Mountains, and the growing likelihood of a Civil War, the federal government was determined to establish and maintain more regular contact with an area rich in natural resources and susceptible to disruptive inroads by an increasingly belligerent South.
Russell, Majors and Waddell also saw an opportunity to compete for a million-dollar government contract for dedicated mail service to the region. The partners planned to fulfill the contract with their already established Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company, of which the proposed Pony Express would be a subsidiary operation.
From a business perspective, the enterprise seemed solid, especially considering the likelihood of Civil War. In wartime, service demands would surely skyrocket, and the resultant profits were bound to be enormous. With these considerations in mind, Russell, Majors and Waddell set out to create the infrastructure that would allow them to pull off this daring scheme.
Whereas communications links were good from the East Coast as far west as Missouri, anything from Kansas westward was problematic at best. Thus the challenge for these entrepreneurs was to come up with a support system to facilitate their plans. They established a headquarters at the Patee House in St. Joe over the existing Central Overland route—to Marysville, Kan.
From Sacramento the mail would be forwarded by steamboat to the Pony Express offices in bustling San Francisco. The total distance covered would amount to nearly 2, miles. Some stagecoach stations were already up and running, but the partners would have to place and construct many more. Ultimately, about way stations covered the route, each spaced from 10 to 15 miles apart—the approximate range a medium-sized horse could sustain at a gallop. Some of these stations would become fairly elaborate affairs, comprising stables, bunkhouses, even taverns and a post office.
Most, however, would remain rudimentary structures, offering a single-story cabin for the station keeper, a corral and a roughed-in shelter for spare horses. Establishing the stations was only the first step. Each would have to be equipped and manned. The service would require station hands, including skilled farriers, as well as horses and at least riders. Considering the combined weight of the mail and the gear to be carried at a gallop by each horse, the riders would necessarily have to weigh no more than pounds.
At this point, the next rider would take charge of the mail and begin his run, the idea being to move the mail from St. Joseph to Sacramento in 10 days.
While the work of a Pony rider was both strenuous and dangerous, it was not considered an excuse for bad behavior. Each rider had to swear an oath to conduct themselves honestly and refrain from cursing, fighting or abusing their animals. Each was then issued a small leather-bound Bible. He is often credited with being the first rider to head west out of St. Joseph, on the evening of April 3, , although that remains in dispute.
Others—including Henry Wallace, Billy Richardson and Alex Carlyle—also claimed to have been the first to gallop westward. The first rider heading east out of Sacramento was probably William Hamilton. While the riders were the stars of the Pony Express, they had a strong supporting cast. He was too big and far too old he was 23 when the service began. Rather, Hickok was an assistant keeper at Rock Creek Station in southeastern Nebraska near the present-day town of Endicott.
It was there he got into an argument with former property owner David McCanles and two of his companions. The ensuing gunfight left McCanles and his associates dead and Hickok with a reputation as a fearless gunfighter. Wranglers carefully selected the horses that carried the young riders.
But all were specially chosen for their strength and endurance. With riders and horses assembled, the service was left to equip them for the job.
Each mochila comprised four reinforced leather boxes, or cantinas , each secured with a small, heart-shaped brass padlock. The four cantinas could carry about 20 pounds of mail in all. The combined weight of the rider, mail and accoutrements came to about pounds.
The service eventually trimmed that weight by stripping riders of their additional weapons and Bibles. The routes were demanding, making it imperative that men and horses maintain top physical condition—an expensive proposition.
Conditions at home stations, while not luxurious, were quite comfortable, and the food was often very good. While this seems a self-defeating proposition, it may well be that Russell, Majors and Waddell simply saw it as a necessary expenditure in view of their other business ambitions. William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B.
It later become known as the Pony Express. On June 16, , about ten weeks after the Pony Express began operations, Congress authorized a bill to subsidize a transcontinental telegraph line to connect the Missouri River and the Pacific Coast. While the telegraph lines were under construction the Pony Express operated as usual.
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