Pony Express
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- This article is about the mail service. For train service to Monmouth Park, please see North Jersey Coast Line.
The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the North American continent from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast, operating from April 1860 to November 1861. Messages were carried on horseback relay across the prairies, plains, deserts, and mountains of the western United States. It briefly reduced the time for mail to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to around ten days.
The Pony Express competed with another fast mail line across the continent, the Butterfield Stage, which began operations in 1857. By traveling a slightly shorter route and using mounted riders rather than stagecoaches, the founders of the Pony Express hoped to establish their service as a faster and more reliable conduit for the mail and win away the Butterfield Stage's exclusive government mail contract.
History
The first successful Pony Express run left Saint Joseph, Missouri on April 3, 1860, and arrived in Sacramento, California on April 13. (There were routes that ran from the official 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. Waddell 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.St. Joseph was selected as the eastern starting point because the newly constructed Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad which was the first railroad to cross Missouri.
Operation
Pony Express stations were placed at intervals of about 10 miles (16 km) along the route [link], roughly the maximum distance a horse can travel at full 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 (75 kg) on the horse's back. Riders, who could not weigh over 110 pounds, were changed about every 75–100 miles (160 km).Lasting Impact
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 and bought out by Wells Fargo.
Legacy
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)]
External links
- [St. Joseph Museum Inc., Pony Express History]
- [Hollenberg Pony Express Station]
- [Pony Express home station]
- ["The Story Of The Pony Express" from the National Postal Museum]
- [The Pony Express for Kids]
- [Pony Express Postal History]
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