The Pony Express Celebrates
Sesquicentennial, April 3rd

 

by: Bobby McDonald

 

 

The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the continental United States from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, Californial, from April 1860 to October 1861. It became the west's most direct means of east-west communication before the telegraph and was vital for tying California closely with the remainder of the U.S. just before the Civil War.

The Pony Express was a mail delivery system of the Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Company of 1849 which in 1850 became the Central Overand California and Pikes Peak Mail System. This firm was founded by William H. Russell, Alexander Major, and William B. Waddell III.

 

 

The original fast mail services had messages carried by horse riders in relay across the prairies, plains, deserts, and mountains of the Western United States. For its 18 months of operation, it briefly reduced the time for mail to travel between the Atlantic and Pacificcoasts to about ten days.

By having a 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 an exclusive government mail contract. Pony Express demonstrated that a unified transcontinental system could be built and operated continuously year round. Since its replacement by the telegraph, the Pony Express has become part of the lore of the American West. Its reliance on the ability and endurance of individual riders and horses over technological innovation was part of "American rugged individualism."

 

 

Its route has been designated the Pony Express National Historic Trail. Approximately 120 historic sites along the trail may eventually be open to the public, including 50 stations or station ruins.

 

 

 

 

 

From 1866 until 1890, the Pony Express logo was used by Wells Fargo, which provided secure mail and freight services. The United States Postal Service (USPS) uses "Pony Express" as a trademark for postal services in the U. S. Freight Link international courier services, based in Russia, adopted the Pony Express trademark and a logo similar to that of the USPS.

 

 

 

 

April 3, 2010 will be the Pony Express' 150th anniversary. Located in St. Joseph, Missouri, the Patee House Museum, which was the Pony Express' headquarters, will be hosting events celebrating the anniversary, this weekend.

 

 

Many Pony Express stations across the Western U.S. are still kept as monuments to the riders and the services that were provided by the breakthrough in express mail, one hundred and fifty years ago.

The Pony Express Stations were spaced at intervals of about 10 miles along the route, roughly the maximum distance a horse can travel at full speed. The riders changed to a fresh horse at each station, taking only the mail pouch, called a "mochila," Spanish for "pouch." The mochila was thrown over the saddle and held in place by 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 of mail.

Riders on the Pony Express were sought that weighed no more than 125 pounds and would change about every 175-200 miles on the route. The riders carried with them a water sack, a Bible, a knife, a horn for alerting the relay station that they were coming in, a revolver, and most times a rifle. Eventually, they took away everything except a water sack and a revolver to cut down on the weight. Riders received $100.00 in pay per month, on the Pony Express.

 

 

 

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