![]() Much of what we know about the entire endeavor is myth, exaggerated and reworked in tales told long after the route was shut down. Very few company records exist for the Pony Express, making it hard to confirm who was really involved. Buffalo Bill probably wasn't involved in the Pony Express.īuffalo Bill Cody circa 1892. "He carried nothing that was not absolutely necessary, for even the postage on his literary freight was worth five dollars a letter," he wrote. Twain goes on to say that the rider was unarmed. In Roughing It, Mark Twain (who, we should note, was not always known for his adherence to the truth) described seeing a rider for the Pony Express speed by wearing clothes that were "thin, and fitted close he wore a 'round-about,' and a skull-cap, and tucked his pantaloons into his boot-tops like a race-rider." They were trying to minimize the weight their horse had to carry in every way, including in their dress. Ismert Collection - Kansas City, Missouri, Wikimedia Commons // Public DomainĬontrary to myth, Pony Express riders weren't speeding across the landscape in cowboy hats wearing fringe-covered buckskins and toting guns. Fry is thought to be the first eastbound rider on the Pony Express. Pony Express riders looked a little different than you might imagine.Ĭlockwise from top left: Billy Richardson, Johnny Fry, Gus Cliff, Charles Cliff. Majors had to find riders and substitutes (paid around $125 a month, according to his autobiography, or around $3500 today) as well as 200 station masters who could work in those remote locations, plus buy and deliver the supplies necessary to run the stations. The stations were usually located in remote areas decided by route efficiency rather than construction or supply convenience. They not only had to buy hundreds of horses, but build enough stations that riders could change horses every 10 miles or so-meaning more than 150 stations across the West. Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress // Public DomainĪlexander Majors, alongside co-founders William Russell and William Waddell, had just two months to get the Pony Express up and running-a more complicated task than it might sound. It’s the only one still standing on its original site with its original dimensions. The Hollenberg Pony Express station near Hanover, Kansas is the most intact Pony Express station left. The Pony Express's founding was as rushed as its riders. Accounts of the types of horses used by the Pony Express vary in his 1893 autobiography, Pony Express co-founder Alexander Majors wrote that "The horses were mostly half-breed California mustangs, as alert and energetic as their riders, and their part in the service sure-footed and fleet was invaluable." The eastern part of the route may have also used breeds like Morgans and Thoroughbreds (now best known for their use in horse racing). However, those steeds may not have been ponies in the proper sense-by definition, ponies are small breeds of horse under 14.2 hands (4.8 feet) tall. The stations were about 10 miles apart, and at every station, they changed mounts, swapping out their steeds up to 10 times a ride the whole enterprise involved about 400 horses. Pony Express riders typically rode for 75 to 100 miles at a stretch, but they changed horses many times over the course of their journey to ensure that their steeds could go as fast as possible. ![]() Frederick Remington, Gilcrease Museum // Public Domain The Pony Express didn't operate for that long.įrederick Remington's The Coming and Going of the Pony Express, 1900. The Pony Express was by far the most effective way to communicate cross-country at the time-at least until the telegraph came along. In 1861, riders traversed the westward route in seven days, 17 hours to get a copy of Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address to California. The riders carried mail from the Midwest to the West Coast in less than half the time a stagecoach could ( 24 days), and in a pinch, could go even faster. (When the Pony Express began, only Missouri and California were officially states.) From Missouri, the route snaked through Kansas to Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and then on to California, where it ended in Sacramento (the mail would then usually travel by boat to San Francisco). With riders traveling at an average pace of 10 miles per hour around the clock, the 1966-mile route passed through eight modern-day states in 10 days. William Henry Jackson, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain A map of the Pony Express route by artist William Henry Jackson.
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