The Legendary Pony Express

How could anyone turn down a job opportunity like this? You get to ride a horse at a gallop for 10-12 hours at a time, often through the night, braving blizzards, enduring rainstorms, and risking death from hostile Indians, the occasional robber, or injuries from a fall. After you complete your 75-100 mile trek, you can grab a bite to eat, get some sleep, and then repeat the process in the other direction.

In 1850, California, with a population of about 100,000, became our newest state. At that time, the fastest way to get a letter from the east coast of the U.S. to California was by ship, requiring 3-6 months. It was becoming increasingly clear that a better means of mail delivery was needed. The railroad system could get the mail as far west as the Mississippi River, and over the next decade, freight wagons and stagecoaches established mail routes across the plains and over the Rockies to California, but it still took 4-6 weeks for a letter to arrive in San Francisco.

In late January of 1860, the firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell formed the Pony Express, with the goal of carrying mail and telegrams from Missouri to California in only ten days. Relays of riders would carry the mail in a saddle bag, then pass the bag off to the next rider at strategic locations along the route. It was an ambitious plan. Since a healthy horse could only run at a gallop for 8-12 miles, scores of relay stations would have to be set up along the 2000-mile route, along with the men and horses to support them. Amazingly, it took Alexander Majors only a little more than two months to determine the route, establish the relay stations, purchase approximately 500 prime horses, hire 200 hundred men to man the stations and find 80 riders to carry the mail.

The Pony Express Route

As it turned out, hundreds of adventuresome young men applied for a job as a pony express rider. Perhaps it was the allure of an exciting, dangerous job - especially when compared to the alternative; working the farm with your six other siblings or maybe an apprenticeship as a cobbler. Perhaps it was the pay; that $25 a week was about triple what a carpenter or blacksmith made, and about five times what a ranch hand could make. Eventually, 120 applicants were hired to carry the mail along the route.

Weight was an important factor, as a horse could run further and faster with a lighter load. The riders could weigh no more than 125 pounds, and the mail was limited to 20 pounds. A lightweight wooden saddle was used, and along with the saddle bag, a small water bag, and pistol, the total weight carried by the horse was about 165 pounds.

A total of 157 ‘swing’ stations were established, about 8-12 miles apart, where the rider would swap horses. Approximately 30 ‘home’ stations were also established, which provided room and board for the riders after they completed the day’s run. The home stations were spaced between 75 and 100 miles apart, defining a day’s journey for each rider. About 190 horses were needed for each run.

The mail was carried in a mochila, which was a specially designed mail bag that hung over the saddle. Each mochila had four locked mail pouches. According to the National Postal Museum,  three of the pouches carried mail and could only be opened at military posts, while the fourth carried the rider’s documents, and could be opened by any station master. When the rider arrived at a swing station, he would dismount, grab the mochila off his saddle, place it onto the saddle of the fresh horse and then head out on the next leg of his day’s run. It took less than two minutes to make the transfer.

At a cost of $5 per half ounce (about $190 in today’s dollars), it was expensive to mail a letter. The rates were lowered, eventually reaching $1 per half ounce, but this was still much more expensive than the usual cost of mailing a normal letter - about one cent per ounce. Because of this, most of the mail carried by the pony express consisted of government and military papers, and dispatches from newspaper correspondents sending news back east. Letters were written on the thinnest paper available, and each packet of letters would be wrapped in silk to protect it from water damage.

The average time to deliver a letter averaged just over 10 days during the warmer months, but took closer to fourteen days during the snowy months. The fastest run carried President Lincoln’s Inaugural Address, which took just 7 days and 17 hours.

The Pony Express lasted only about 18 months, from April 3, 1860 until October 24, 1861. It never made a profit, and its demise came with the completion of the telegraph, linking the East coast with California. The three founders invested $750,000 and ended with a debt of $200,000. The following year, the company’s assets sold at auction, forever ending the Pony Express.

On our drive north through Nevada on our way to Canada, at the spot where our route crosses the trail taken by the legendary Pony Express is a rest area commemorating the site of one of the swing stations. We stopped and stretched our legs and read about those intrepid young men who braved the perils, snow and cold of mountains of the Rockies to the east and the Sierras to the west, as well as the triple digit temperatures of the Great Basin. Those were some tough guys.

At the rest stop Where US-93 crosses the Pony Express Trail

Then we climbed back into our climate-controlled glamping van, took a sip of hot coffee, and continued roughing it onward.

See you next week…