pony express
| Dictionary: pony express |
n.
A system of rapid mail transportation by relays of horses that operated from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in 1860-1861.
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Pony Express |
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| US History Encyclopedia: Pony Express |
The Pony Express officially lasted from 3 April 1860 to 26 October 1861, although a few scattered runs were made through November. At first, mail was carried once a week; after June 1860 it was carried twice a week. It operated as a private enterprise, but beginning on 1 July 1860, it was a subcontracted mail route of the U.S. Post Office Department. Prior to the Pony Express, mail could take weeks, even months to arrive from the eastern to the Pacific states. Most was carried by water. Those who wanted their mail in less than two months had only one option, John Butterfield's Overland Mail stagecoach service. Butterfield's stages used the Southern Route between Tipton, Missouri, and San Francisco, California. At its swiftest, mail traveled this route in twenty-four days. Westerners demanded faster mail service. The Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company (COC&PP) freighting firm stepped up to the challenge. The owners, William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William Waddell, proposed a relay system of horses to carry the mail across the then less accessible 1,966-mile-long Central Route between St.Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. They boasted of cutting mail delivery time down to ten days. Russell anticipated that the resulting publicity from a successful, showy service would help him secure a lucrative mail contract over that route.
The Pony Express used an intricate relay system of riders and horses to carry the mail over a route that passed through the present states of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. Riders carried the mail across the Plains, along the valley of the Platte River, across the Great Plateau, through the Rockies, into the valley of the Great Salt Lake, through the alkali deserts of Nevada, then over the Sierra Nevada and into the Sacramento Valley. Russell and his partners bought four hundred horses and hired riders and stationmasters. Stations were placed approximately ten miles apart. Where they did not previously exist, the company built and stocked them.
Riders were assigned seventy-five-mile-long portions of the trail and kept a speedy pace by switching horses at each station. Riders carried letters and telegrams as well as newspapers printed on special lightweight paper. Mail was wrapped in oiled silk for protection and placed in the pockets of a specially designed saddle cover called a mochila. When horse or rider switches were made, the mochila was whipped off of one saddle and tossed onto the next one.
The price of a letter was $5 per half-ounce at first, and reduced to $1 per half-ounce on 1 July 1861.The fastest delivery time recorded for the Pony Express was seven days and seventeen hours, conveying Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address. Russell, Majors, and Waddell lost $30 on every letter they carried. By the time they sold their assets for debts, employees joked that the company's initials stood for "Clean Out of Cash and Poor Pay." In March 1861, the Pony Express became the property of the Butterfield Overland Express and Wells, Fargo. On 1 July 1861, Butterfield's Overland Mail line was moved from the Southern to the Central Route.
Although a financial failure, the Pony Express successfully filled the communication gap before the completion of the telegraph, provided westerners with speedier access to family and friends in the East, improved contact between western military outposts, proved the Central Route was passable year round, and paved the way for permanent transportation systems along its route.
Bibliography
Bloss, Roy S. Pony Express, the Great Gamble. Berkeley: Howell-North, 1959.
Bradley, Glenn Danford. The Story of the Pony Express. 2d ed. San Francisco: Hesperian House, 1960.
Chapman, Arthur. The Pony Express: the Record of a Romantic Adventure in Business. New York: Cooper Square, 1971.
Settle, Raymond W. The Pony Express: Heroic Effort, Tragic End. San Rafael, Calif.: Pony Express History and Art Gallery, 1959.
The Mochila
Mochila is the Spanish term for knapsack, although the mochilas used by pony express riders did not resemble knapsacks. Made of leather, with four pockets, or cantinas, the mochilas carried the mail. Three of the cantinas were locked. The keys were held by stationmasters at each end of the route and at the home stations where riders handed off the mail. The mochila was easy to slip on or off a saddle, and when riders changed horses, they just grabbed the mochila and swung it over the saddle of the new horse. Riders sat on the mochila-covered saddle. Openings cut into the leather allowed it to fit over the saddle horn and cantle.
| Spotlight: pony express |
From our Archives: Today's Highlights, April 3, 2006
On this date in 1860, the Pony Express began service between St. Joseph, MO., and Sacramento, CA. It took riders about eight days to travel some 2,000 miles (3,200 km). They changed horses every 10-15 miles (16-24 km), and it took nearly 20 riders to make the whole trip. With the advent of telegrams in 1861, the pony express was phased out.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: pony express |
pony express, in U.S. history, relay mail service. At its inception in Apr., 1860, the pony express operated between St. Joseph, Mo., the western end of a telegraph line, and Sacramento, Calif. Riders carried the mail a distance of nearly 2,000 mi (3,200 km) in about eight days, often traveling through hostile Native American territory. Stations where the riders changed horses were roughly 10 to 15 mi (16-24.1 km) apart. After a rider had covered a certain distance, the mail was turned over to another rider; this continued until the destination was reached.
The pony express was operated by the freighting firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell. As a business venture, it was unsuccessful. Before the pony express, letters to and from California had been carried by ships, wagon trains, and stagecoaches and had required much more time for the journey. The first telegram to San Francisco was transmitted Oct. 24, 1861, and the pony express was then gradually discontinued. Its existence was brief but picturesque, and the pony express lives in legend as well as in history. In 1992 the Pony Express National Historic Trail, which covers the entire route followed by pony express riders, was designated part of the National Trails System (see National Parks and Monuments (table)).
Bibliography
See L. R. Hafen, The Overland Mail (1926); A. Chapman, The Pony Express (1932, repr. 1971); R. W. Settle and M. A. L. Settle, Saddles and Spurs (1955, repr. 1972); G. D. Bradley, Story of the Pony Express (2d ed. 1960); M. Mattes and P. Henderson, The Pony Express from St. Joseph to Fort Laramie (1989).
| History Dictionary: Pony Express |
A system of mail service by relays of riders on horses, established in 1860 between Missouri and California, through the Rocky Mountains. It operated for only a year and a half, until a telegraph line eliminated the need for it.
| Wikipedia: Pony Express |
For the 1953 film, see Pony Express (film). For the 1959–60 television series, see Pony Express (TV series). For the roller coaster, see The Pony Express (roller coaster).
The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the North American continent from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 1860 to October 1861. It became the nation's most direct means of east-west communication before the telegraph and was vital for tying California closely with the Union just before the American Civil War.
The Pony Express was an outgrowth of the Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Company of 1859, which became a year later the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company. This firm was founded by William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell.[1]
The original fast mail services had messages carried by horseback 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 Pacific coasts to about ten days.[2]
By having riders travel 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 First Transcontinental 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.[3]
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 US. Freight Link international courier services, based in Russia, adopted the Pony Express trademark,and a logo similar to that of the USPS.
Contents |
Operation
A total of about 190 Pony Express stations were placed at intervals of about 10 miles (16 km) along the approximately 2,000 miles (3,200 km) route. [5] This was roughly the maximum distance a horse could travel at full gallop. The rider changed to a fresh horse at each station, taking only the mail pouch called a mochila, (from the Spanish Language--"pouch") with him. The employers stressed the importance of the pouch. They often said that, if it came to be, the horse and rider should perish before the mochila did. 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 materiall carried on the horse, allowing for a total of 165 pounds (75 kg) on the horse's back. Riders, who could not weigh over 125 pounds, changed about every 75–100 miles (120-160 km). Included in that 20 pounds were: a water sack, a Bible, a horn for alerting the relay station master to prepare the next horse, a revolver, and a choice of a rifle or another revolver[citation needed]. Eventually, they took away everything except one revolver and a water sack to cut down on the weight. In case of emergencies, there are several documented cases where a given rider rode two stages back to back--over 20 hours on a galloping horse. The riders rode day and night.
It is unknown if riders tried crossing the Sierras in winter but they certainly crossed central Nevada. By 1860 there was a telegraph station in Carson City, Nevada. The riders received $25 per week as pay. A comparable wage for unskilled labor was about $1 per week for a 12-hour day's labor.
Alexander Majors, one of the founders of the Pony Express, had acquired more than 400 horses for the project. These averaged about 14½ hands (1.47 m) high and averaged 900 pounds (410 kg)[6] each; thus, the name pony was appropriate, even if not strictly correct for all the horses.
Route of the Pony Express
The roughly 1,900 miles (3,100 km) route [7] roughly followed the Oregon Trail, and California Trail to Fort Bridger in Wyoming and then the Mormon Trail to Salt Lake City, Utah. From there it roughly followed the Central Nevada Route to Carson City, Nevada before passing over the Sierra Nevadas into Sacramento, California.
The rote started at St. Joseph, Missouri on the Missouri River, it then followed what is modern day US 36—the Pony Express Highway—to Marysville, Kansas, where it turned northwest following Little Blue River to Fort Kearny in Nebraska. Through Nebraska it followed the Great Platte River Road, cutting through Gothenburg, Nebraska and passing Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock, and Scotts Bluff, clipping the edge of Colorado at Julesburg, Colorado, before arriving at Fort Laramie in Wyoming. From there it followed the Sweetwater River, passing Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, and Split Rock, to Fort Caspar, through South Pass to Fort Bridger and then down to Salt Lake City. From Salt Lake City it generally followed the Central Nevada Route blazed by Captain James H. Simpson of the Corps of Topographical Engineers in 1859. This route roughly follows today's U.S. Highway 50 across Nevada and Utah. It crossed the Great Basin, the Utah-Nevada Desert, and the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe before arriving in Sacramento. Mail was then sent via steamer down the Sacramento River to San Francisco. On a few instances when the steamer was missed, riders took the mail via horseback to Oakland, California.
The first ride
The rides were scheduled to leave San Francisco and St. Joseph simultaneously on April 3, 1860. The westbound route has gotten more publicity. No photographs of riders beginning in either direction are known and none are believed to exist.
Westbound
The messenger delivering the mochila from New York and Washington missed a connection in Detroit and arrived in Hannibal, Missouri, two hours late. The railroad cleared the track and dispatched a special locomotive called the "Missouri" with a one-car train to make the 206-mile (332 km) trek across the state in a record 4 hours, 51 minutes — an average of 40 miles per hour (64 km/h).[8] It arrived at Olive and 8th Street — a few blocks from the company's new headquarters in a hotel at Patee House at 12th Street and Pennsylvania and the company's nearby stables on Pennsylvania. The first pouch contained 49 letters, five private telegrams, and some papers for San Francisco and intermediate points.[9]
St. Joseph Mayor M. Jeff Thompson, William H. Russell and Alexander Majors gave speeches before the mochila was handed off. The ride began at about 7:15 p.m. The St. Joseph Gazette was the only newspaper included in the bag.
The identity of the first rider has long been in dispute. The Weekly West (April 4, 1860) reported Johnson William Richardson was the first rider (see Footnote 358 [3]).
The first horse-ridden leg of the Express was only about a half mile (800 m) from the Express stables/railroad area to the Missouri River ferry at the foot of Jules Street. Johnny Fry is credited as the first westbound rider who carried the pouch across the Missouri River ferry to Elwood, Kansas. Reports indicated that horse and rider crossed the river. In later rides, the courier crossed the river without a horse and picked up his mount at a stable on the other side.
The first westbound mochila reached its destination, San Francisco, on April 14, at 1:00 a.m. [10]
Eastbound
James Randall is credited as the first rider from the San Francisco Alta telegraph office, since he was on the steamship Antelope to go to Sacramento. At 2:45 a.m., William (Sam) Hamilton was the first rider to begin the journey from Sacramento.
Closing and Legacy
Although the Pony Express proved that the central/northern mail route was viable, Russell, Majors, and Waddell did not get the contract to deliver mail over the route. The contract was instead awarded to Jeremy Dehut in March 1861, who had taken over the southern Congressionally favored Butterfield Overland Mail Stage Line. Holladay took over the Russell, Majors and Waddell stations for his stagecoaches.
Shortly after the contract was awarded, the start of the American Civil War caused the stage line to cease operation. From March 1861, the Pony Express ran mail only between Salt Lake City and Sacramento. The Pony Express announced its closure on October 26, 1861, two days after the transcontinental telegraph reached Salt Lake City and connected Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California. [11] Other telegraph lines connected points along the line and other cities on the east and west coasts.
The Pony Express had grossed $90,000 and lost $200,000.[12] In 1866, after the American Civil War was over, Holladay sold the Pony Express assets along with the remnants of the Butterfield Stage to Wells Fargo for $1.5 million.
Wells Fargo used the Pony Express logo for its guard and armored car service. The logo continued to be used when other companies took over the security business into the 1990s. Effective 2001, the Pony Express logo was no longer used for security businesses since the business has been sold.[13]
In June 2006, the United States Postal Service announced it had trademarked "Pony Express" along with Air Mail.[14]
"Pony Express" is a trademarked name used by Freight Link international courier services company in Russia; their logo is similar to the one trademarked by United States Postal Service with "Since 1860" written under the image. [15]
Legacy
Pony Express memorial statues are in Sacramento; Stateline, Nevada; Reno, Nevada; Salt Lake City; Casper, Wyoming; Julesburg, Colorado; Marysville, Kansas; North Kansas City, Missouri; and St. Joseph. The original and most famous is the one dedicated on April 20, 1940, in St. Joseph. It was sculpted by Hermon Atkins MacNeil. It is at City Hall Park. The city has rejected proposals to move it to the park opposite the stables.
Eagle Mountain, Utah, located on the original Pony Express Trail in Utah, has several locations and events that commemorate the Pony Express.
- Pony Express Boulevard in Eagle Mountain, Utah may be the only street built on the original Pony Express Trail that is named after the Pony Express.
- Pony Express Days, the annual community celebration of Eagle Mountain, are celebrated the first week of June of each year.
- The Alpine School Districts's Pony Express Elementary School is located in Eagle Mountain and is a K-5 elementary school.
- Eagle Mountain also has an official Pony Express monument on the site of the original Joe's Dug Out station on the Pony Express Trail.
- Neighborhoods in Eagle Mountain are named after stations on the Pony Express Trail, such as: "Cold Spring", "Kennekuk", "Ash Point", and "Kiowa". A major road is named "Sweetwater", after another station, and a charter High School is named "Rockwell."
In popular culture
- McGraw Hill and Amerikids USA[16] produced the game Pony Express Rider in 1996. In the game, the Pony Express helps the Union uncover the plans of the Knights of the Golden Circle.[citation needed]
- The Pony Express is depicted in Spielberg's mini-series "Into the West" (2005).
See also
Gallery
 "Joe's Dug Out" Pony Express Monument located on Pony Express Boulevard in Eagle Mountain, Utah |
 Pony Express Elementary School located in Eagle Mountain, Utah |
 Parade celebrating Pony Express Days in Eagle Mountain, Utah. |
References
Sources
- Century Magazine, volume xxxiv (New York, 1898)
Notes
- ^ [1],National Park Service, accessed 29 Oct 2009
- ^ 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
- ^ "Pony Express National Historic Trail: History and Culture", National Park Service, accessed 4 May 2009
- ^ http://www.nps.gov/poex/planyourvisit/site1.htm
- ^ St. Joseph Pony Express Museum accessed 27 Jan 2009
- ^ Pony Express horses
- ^ The Pony Express Trail [2]
- ^ Hannibal & Joseph Railroad at xphomestation.com
- ^ The Great Race Against Time: Birth of the Pony Express - National Park Service
- ^ First Rider - Westbound at xhomestation.com
- ^ The History of St. Joseph Museum
- ^ Financial Problems at xhomestation.com
- ^ WELLS FARGO REACQUIRES NAME RIGHTS FROM BORG-WARNER May 4, 1999 Press Release
- ^ U.S. POSTAL SERVICE EXPANDS LICENSING PROGRAM News Release #06-043 June 20, 2006
- ^ Pony Express Russia (Freight Link)
- ^ http://www.amerikids.com/pony.htm
External links
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This article's external links may not follow Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links. |
- Pony Express on Oregon Trail, Wyoming Tales and Trails
- George A. Root and Russell K. Hickman, "Part IV-The Platte Route-Concluded. The Pony Express and Pacific Telegraph", Kansas Historical Quarterly, February, 1946 (Vol. 14 No. 1), pp. 36-92.
- National Historic Trail - Pony Express Stables
- Pony Express: Historic Resource Study, National Park Service
- History Buff Primary Source
- Pony Express Territory in Nevada
- Pony Express History, St. Joseph Museum Inc.
- Hollenberg Pony Express Station
- Pony Express home station
- "The Story Of The Pony Express", National Postal Museum
- The Pony Express for Kids, Pocantico Hills
- Advertisement for riders
- List of Pony Express resources for further reading
- James Nash 1838-1926 Pony express rider
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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Mentioned in
- The Overland Express (1938 Western Film)
- American Traditions: The Pony Express (1994 Film)
- Dora the Explorer: Pinto, the Pony Express (2006 Children's/Family Film)
- The Pony Express Rider (1976 Western Film)
- American West: The Pony Express (1994 History Film)
- American History for Kids: The Pony Express (1999 Film)
- Saint Joseph (city of northwest Missouri on the Missouri River)
- Hickok, Wild Bill (History)
- Ride the Wind, Part One: Bonanza (TV Episode) (1966 Western TV Episode)
- Ride the Wind (1966 Western Film)
- hit the ground running (Idiom)
- Pony Express Rider (1926 Western Film)
- Pony Express Record (1994 Album by Shudder to Think)
- Outlaw Express (1938 Western Film)
I get mail; therefore I am.
