Pony Express
- This article is about the mail service. For train service to Monmouth Park, please see North Jersey Coast Line.
The Pony Express was the first fast mail line across the North American continent from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast, operating from April 1860 to November 1861. Messages were carried on horseback across the prairies, plains, deserts, and mountains of the western United States. It briefly brought the Atlantic and Pacific coasts ten days nearer to each other.
The first successful Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California started on April 3, 1860 and was completed on April 13. (There were routes that ran from the offical Pony Express route to San Diego, California and points north and south along the route). The mayor of St. Joseph, M. Jeff Thompson, presided over the ceremony inaugurating the first ride. Johnny Fry was the first west bound rider leaving St Joseph. William Hepburn Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddel are known as the founders, owners, and operators of the Pony Express. Benjamin Franklin Ficklin was among the primary partners. Ficklin left the company due to a conflict that arose with another partner during the first year of operation.
Pony Express stations were placed at intervals of about 10 miles (16 km) along the route (this is about as far as a horse can go at a gallop). The rider changed to a fresh horse at each station, taking only the mail pouch (called a mochila) with him. The mochila was thrown over the saddle and held in place by the weight of the rider sitting on it. Each corner had a cantina, or pocket. Bundles of mail were placed in these cantinas, which were padlocked for safety. The mochila could hold 20 pounds (10 kg) of mail along with the 20 pounds of material carried on the horse, allowing for a total of 165 pounds on the horse's back. Riders were changed about every 100 miles (160 km).
The Pony Express demonstrated that a unified transcontinental system could be built and operated continuously the year around - something that had previously been regarded as impossible. For its brief time, the Pony Express was the most regular and predictable mail service using overland travel. Only during the Paiute War, when several stations were ambushed, did it ever experience notable delays. It lasted only sixteen months before being supplanted by the transcontinental telegraph.
Since its replacement by the First Transcontinental Railroad and the telegraph, the Pony Express has entered the romance of the American West. Its reliance on the ability and endurance of the individual riders and horses over technological innovation is part of American rugged individualism.
See Also
Reference
- Bradley, Glenn D. The Story of the Pony Express: An Account of the Most Remarkable Mail Service Ever in Existence, and Its Place in History. Project Gutenberg Release #4671 (Available Online)