Here are the answers to The Pony Express questions.
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The Pony Express was a pony and rider mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri
and Sacramento, California.
please click any photo for a full size image
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The Pony Express was in operation for only 18 months from April 3, 1860 until
October 26, 1861. Mail that was inroute was delivered until into November.
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The Pony Express route started in St. Joseph, Missouri. From there it went
through Kansas, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and California.
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The average time to deliver mail between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento,
California was 10 days. The entire route was over 1,900 miles and took 75
riders. Each would change horses about 3 times to carry the mail about 75
miles.
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The initial cost was $5.00 in gold for every ounce or fraction of an ounce.
The riders could carry 12-15 pounds of mail. Lightweight paper was developed
and so reduced the cost. It was used for newspaper special editions. The cost
then dropped from $2.50 to $1.00 per half ounce of mail. Once the mail was
delivered to St. Joseph, Missouri, it was telegraphed from there to the East.
Remember, this was a time when a $1.00 a day was considered good wages!!
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The total number of riders hired for The Pony Express was 80. So many have
claimed to have ridden for The Pony Express and the facts that some riders were
replaced and that all the company records did not survive, makes it impossible
to dispute any claims. If one of your relatives said he rode for The Pony
Express, he probably did!
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There were five divisions of the 2,000 mile route. Home stations were 65-100
miles apart. They were shared with the Overland Stage and were where the
riders could sleep before they made the return to the home station they came
from. Relay (or swing) stations were 12-15 miles apart; this is where the
riders would just change horses.
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No. The riders usually covered 65-100 miles between home stations, changing
horses at the relay stations. They would pass the mail on to the next rider to
be carried to the next home station. The first rider would then rest at the
home station until the next mail arrived to be carried back to the home station
he came from.
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They carried the mail in a specially designed mailbag called a
mochila
. The first riders used a regular saddlebag but it proved unwieldy. The
company developed the
mochila
-Spanich for knapsack. It was about the size of a saddle blanket. A single
piece of leather with a hole for the saddle horn, there were 4 pockets or
cantinas
, to hold mail. Three were locked with the keys only at the end of the route,
the divisional headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, and at the Army posts
along the way. The mochila could carry from 12-15 pounds of mail. The rider
would throw the mochila over the horn of the saddle and sit on it during his
ride. When approaching the next station, he would raise up in the stirrups and
pull the mochila from under him to have it in hand to either throw it over the
saddle horn of the next horse or pass it to the next rider.
The mochila is on the right side of the photo, behind the steer horn-said to be
used by Bill Cody on approaching the station to announce his arrival.
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Besides the variety in terrain: mountains, desert, rivers and open plains,
there was the changing weather with the seasons during the year: snow, rain,
fog and heat. Huge buffalo herds would sometimes block the trail and the wolf
packs that followed the herds would sometimes stalk the riders. Fresh water
was not always available at some of the stations and, for a time, some areas
were dangerous because of local Indian tribes that would harass the stations
and drive off the herds of relay ponies.
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Once the Overland Telegraph lines were joined together at Salt Lake City, Utah
on October 24, 1861, there was no longer a need for The Pony Express to carry
the news. The last mochila was deliverd in November-it was still full of mail
to be carried to the end of the route when the telegraph was completed.
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Yes! There have been many "pony expresses". Darius the Great of the Persian
Empire had a system that covered much of today's Middle East. The Apian Way in
Italy was built by the Romans for chariots or swift horses to carry military
news, dispatches and important mail. In the 13th century, Marco Polo observed
that the Great Khan of China had a system of stations a day's ride apart and
had over 200,000 horses to maintain it.
In the Americas, newspapers on the East coast used a type of pony express to
gather news and election returns as early as 1825. A twice a month courier
service was used by General Kearny between San Francisco and San Diego around
1850. Marcus Whitman, a famous missionary, called for a system to carry mail
between the "states" and the West coast as early as the 1840's.
Tidbits!!
The first rider from St. Joseph, Missouri was either Billy Richardson or Johnny
Frye of Kansas. The first rider from Sacramento, California, who started the
same day, was Harry Roff. They would have passed each other near Salt Lake
City, Utah sometime on April 8th.
Many of the riders went on to become famous in different areas. Some became
Mormon bishops and one had a mineral he discoverd named after him (Gilsonite).
Probably the most famous was Buffalo Bill Cody. Billy Campbell, one of the
youngest riders, was also the last; he died in 1932 at age 90.
For more information:
The Pony Express
a nice site.
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