 Pony Express and Overland Mail Office at Fort Kearney, 1861. Page 113. |
only four military posts already established on the route between Missouri river and the Pacific ocean, and they at points from 250 to 350 miles apart. For a considerable distance only the stations where a change of animals was made broke the monotony of the dreary ride. Of the eighty daring riders employed on the line, at times forty were in the saddle going west and forty east. With some of them it mattered little whether it was night or day. Their business was to keep a going, rain or shine; for every twenty-four hours an average distance of about 200 miles must be covered. To make the long ride, it was necessary to cross many ravines, gullies, creeks and rivers on the prairies and plains; ford a number of mountain torrents; go over parched stretches of sand and alkali, often facing clouds of dust; pass through weird and rugged cañons and gorges; and wind their way along high and difficult passes of the snow-capped Rockies and Sierras. Some of the places encountered on the western slope were at first pronounced to be next to impassable, and then only in the late summer and autumn months. The weight of the letters was limited to twenty pounds, though usually not to exceed fifteen pounds were carried; and these were, as nearly as possible, distributed into four equal parts. While it cost five dollars for each half-ounce letter when the pony enterprise went into operation, it was not long until the post-office department ordered that the rates be reduced to one dollar per half-ounce, and these were the charges which continued until the line was driven out by the Pacific telegraph. While crossing the mighty western range of mountains, the daring riders demonstrated that there were passes over which they could go at a good speed. As a result, the route selected by them was afterward agreed upon as one of the most feasible by which a railroad might be built and operated through Utah and Nevada, connecting with bands of steel the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. A considerable part of the distance, it should be remembered, was through a country inhabited by various tribes of hostile Indians. Other portions of the vast region were often swept by terrific hail, sleet, wind and rain storms, and occasionally by furious blizzards and blinding snows. The route across the country embraced a wide stretch of rolling prairie, through which coursed a number of beautiful streams at intervals fringed |
with belts of timber and willow; thence over the plains and across the back-bone of the continent; over the Wasatch range into the Salt Lake valley through vast expanses of sage-brush; across a long stretch of desolate alkali plains; through the parched region known as the "Sink of the Carson"; thence across the rugged Sierra Nevadas, down the Pacific slope into Placerville; and, lastly, on to the Sacramento valley and into the capital city of California. The daring riders were sometimes obliged to grapple with sudden dangers, such as snow slides, roaring mountain torrents, and almost irresistible wind-storms, frequently facing clouds of dust and sand; but, in spite of the numerous difficulties, and while occasionally some hours were lost on the trail, there was seldom a trip that was not made on time. The schedule was ten days for eight months in the year, and twelve days for the other four months. The most lonesome and worst part of the long route lay between Salt Lake City and Sacramento. For several hundred miles the trail extended through a parched, desolate region--virtually a desert waste--much of it a section of alkali dust, where it would appear neither man nor beast could subsist. Along the eastern foot-hills of the Sierras and in the mountain cañons it is said hostile bands of Indians were numerous, and there the relay stations were farther apart. The first was a highly interesting but somewhat novel and exciting trip. In making the journey the riders were obliged to go day and night, in all kinds of weather, rain or shine, never stopping except to change ponies, until the end of their stretch was reached, often from 75 to 100 miles. Two minutes were allowed for a change at the various relays; but so expert had the "pony" boys become in the business of changing animals that it was usually made in about fifteen seconds. The time occupied in making the first trip from St. Joseph to Sacramento was nine days and twenty-three hours, while it took eleven days and twelve hours to make the initial trip eastward. But this was little more than one-half the time consumed in making the fastest trip to San Francisco that had ever been made by the Butterfield overland mail coach from St. Louis through southwestern Missouri, the Indian Territory, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. |
During the last six or seven weeks before the enterprise was abandoned, there were on an average 700 letters a week brought by tile "pony" through from the Pacific coast. The telegraph having been finished from the Missouri river to Fort Kearney, the letter pouches were brought from there to Atchison by the overland stage. The pony line was operated semiweekly, and each trip brought about 350 letters. In those last few weeks every pony express letter was mailed at the Atchison post-office, and I thus became quite familiar with them from handling and postmarking each letter--in all, over 4500--while at time employed in that office in the capacity of assistant postmaster and chief clerk, while the great overland mail stages every morning left that city. The letters, many of which were written on tissue paper, were very light; for it cost something in those days, even after the "pony" rates were reduced to one dollar per half-ounce, to indulge in California correspondence. It was necessary that each letter and message transmitted by the "pony" route should be enclosed in a ten-cent (Government) stamped envelope. Some of the letters were rather bulky, and I have postmarked those that had affixed to them as many as twenty-five one dollar "pony" stamps. In addition to these, there were affixed the regular Government stamps, which were ten cents for each half-ounce. These heavy letters thus cost, in the early '60's, $27.50 each for transit by the pony conveyance. Such correspondence looked like an expensive luxury to an outsider; but time, then as now, to the wide-awake business man, was money, and many of those patronizing the pony express seemed not to care for expense. But this was in the early days of the civil war. The San Francisco newspaper men were considerably interested in the result of the remarkable run that conveyed to the Pacific President Lincoln's inaugural speech. They contributed a handsome gold watch, which was presented to the fearless rider on the California division who made the best record in annihilating distance on the journey in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Most of the letters that were brought by the "pony" from California were from merchants, miners, business and professional men in San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, Portland, and other prominent points near the coast. A large majority of them were addressed to merchants and business men in New |
York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, St. Louis, and other cities in the East, while there was an occasional one addressed to the chief magistrate of the nation. Quite a number were for senators and representatives from California, and the delegates from Oregon and other Western territories. Many persons born since 1850 know little or nothing about the pony express, except from heresay (sic). It was a remarkable enterprise in its day and proved of vast importance to the country. To the leading merchants of San Francisco it subsequently appeared almost indispensable. It proved to be a complete success in every way except financially. To Government it was invaluable on the breaking out of the civil war. It is useless to disguise the fact that the enthusiastic projector of the "pony" sunk at least $100,000, and that his partners who lent aid to the enterprise also lost their fortunes. Whether its operation for several years would have brought better results can only be surmised. It cost an enormous sum of money to organize and equip the pony line, and it was a matter of continual expense to keep the line in shape. Nearly 500 of the best saddle-horses were used; 190 stations had to be kept up, and nearly 200 men were employed as station keepers, in addition to the riders. Most of the grain used by the animals between St. Joseph and Salt Lake bad to be transported from Missouri and Iowa across the plains and over the Rocky Mountains at a freight cost of ten to twenty-five cents a pound. On the western division, much of the feed was purchased in Salt Lake City from the Mormons, and distributed over the route beyond as far as the Sierra Nevadas. While the preliminaries of the pony express were talked about quietly for several weeks by the parties interested, the line was stocked in two months--February and March, 1860--at a cost of over $75,000. The projector was sanguine of its success from the start. He believed the enterprise would support itself, little dreaming that those engaged in it would be out more than the original investment. It is stated as a matter of history that the first "pony" west carried only eight letters. While the express proved to be a costly undertaking, it soon demonstrated--but at an enormous loss--what could be done by Western men of energy and determination. Really the pony express was the original "fast mail" over the plains and Rockies--across the so-called "Great American |
Desert" to the golden shore of the Pacific. In its day it was a blessing to the country; but after it was fairly in operation, annihilating space between the Missouri river and the Golden Gate, beating the fastest time that had ever been made across the continent, it was not long until it was distanced itself by the magnetic telegraph. While the pony line was very useful in its day, the period of its life was comparatively brief. It could not stand the race with electricity, and, when the telegraph line was finished, its usefulness was ended; the enterprise was wiped out almost instantly. In three months the route was stocked for the great stage line that carried the first daily overland mail. In less than ten years after the pony line was set in motion the first transcontinental railroad was built, on which the iron horse crossed the plains, climbing three lofty mountain ranges. Like the "star of empire," its course was westward. There was no stop until the bands of steel had been laid, in the later '60's, to the Pacific shore, and soon the great railway was running palace sleeping cars from ocean to ocean. Mr. A. B. Miller, of Leavenworth, who was quite prominently associated with the great overland freighting firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell, did much in getting everything arranged for operating the pony line. A freighter himself, he had made a great number of trips across the plains and was familiar with almost every mile of the country. He appeared rather conservative in his estimate of the practicability of the enterprise; still he satisfied Russell that the distance between the Missouri river and Salt Lake could be covered in ten days, and that, in five days more, the Pacific coast could be reached. More than forty years have passed since the pony express was put in operation. Most of the boy riders yet alive are now between fifty and sixty years of age. The few who are living, however, are scattered all over the country, engaged in various pursuits. Some of them are prominently identified with important enterprises and have become wealthy. In their days, in the early '60's, they were quite similar to "cowboys" on the frontier at the present day--ready at any time for a fight or a frolic. From their varied experiences on the frontier--being familiar with the Western prairies, plains, mountain passes, and deserts--they could engage in a fight and trust to luck. Probably no set of companions |
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Pony Express And Overland Mail Leaving Smith's Hotel, Seneca, Kan. Page 125. |
were ever more loyal to each other or to their friends and employers. In all their trips across the continent, and the 650,000 miles, ridden by them, it is said only one mail was lost, and that a comparatively small, unimportant one. The interest in the pony express at San Francisco was so great that quite a large party--many of them prominent citizens--accompanied the animal and its daring rider on its initial trip by river steamer to Sacramento. Everything having been previously arranged at the east and west ends for the trip, at a given signal each rider was off in a twinkling, speeding on his destination toward the rising and setting sun. On the entire line eighty riders were employed. Each rode three ponies and covered a distance of about thirty-three miles; however, at times it was necessary to ride fifty to seventy-five miles. In California there were many people who, from the very first, seriously doubted the success of the pony express. The newspaper editors in the "Golden" state were among the strongest in their belief that it could never be made a success on account of the Indians. To use their own language, it was "simply inviting slaughter upon all the foolhardy young men who had been engaged as riders." It was only a short time after the enterprise was started, however, until the bankers, leading miners and business men at San Francisco and other prominent points on the coast began to appreciate its importance. Many believed they could not get along without it, for, by using the telegraph wire to St. Joseph, a message could be carried from there by the swift pony to Sacramento in from ten and one-half to twelve days. The time for letters between New York and San Francisco was reduced from twenty-three to thirteen days; for important telegraphic news from Washington and the Atlantic seaboard, the time was lowered eight to nine days, a wire having been extended from the Pacific east across the Sierras to Carson City, about 150 miles from Sacramento, over which all telegrams were transmitted, thus saving some twelve hours in transit. No enterprise of the kind in its day was ever celebrated on the Pacific coast with more enthusiasm than the arrival of the first pony express. At Sacramento the rider and pony went aboard a steamer and a fast run was made the last 125 miles down the Sacramento river to the great Western metropolis. As the steamer |
swung out into the muddy stream the event was flashed over the wire, and the news of the arrival of the first mail across the continent by the fleet pony was published with flaming head-lines in a number of the coast evening papers. At San Francisco the arrival of the express had been anticipated and an immense throng congregated at the wharf to welcome it. Although it was past midnight, bands of music were out, the fire department paraded, and crowds from every part of the city gathered to witness the celebration of one of the biggest enterprises of its day ever known on the far-western coast. In about two months from the establishment of the pony express the enterprise received a serious backset, and many feared the service would have to stop. Several tribes of Indians in the Northwest--the Bannocks, Piutes, and Shoshones--had gone on one of their periodical outbreaks west of Salt Lake, and the pony route for a long distance was interrupted. While on the war-path the savages burned a number of the company's stations, ran off considerable stock and committed other depredations, besides murdering several station keepers. This disastrous raid forced the company to suspend operations for a few trips before the line, it might be said, had fairly gone into operation. Many thought this would be the last of the pony express, and it probably would have been had others, less determined, been at the head of it; but the originator knew no such word as "fail," and determined to keep the enterprise going regardless of the consequences. Volunteers were raised, the outbreak settled, stations rebuilt and stocked, and the line was soon reopened. The trouble and delay necessitated an expenditure by the company of upwards of $75,000, an amount which would have financially paralyzed almost any corporation not possessed of genuine Western pluck and "go-aheaditiveness." While the pony express lasted it was of incalculable benefit on the Pacific coast, particularly while there was a rupture between the North and the South, for copies of Eastern metropolitan newspapers, printed to order on tissue paper, and placed in letter envelopes, were carried across the continent by the fleet pony to the leading San Francisco dailies, which could furnish the news to their readers at least two weeks ahead of the Concord overland mail coach, and nearly three weeks in advance of the Pacific Mail Company's ocean steamers. |
The pay of pony express riders was fixed at from $50 to $150 a month and board. William F. Cody ("Buffalo Bill") and a few others, who had extra risks from riding through regions infested the Cheyennes and Comanches--among the most-feared savages roaming the plains of Nebraska and Colorado in those days--were paid $150 for their services. To make the ride they were often obliged to take their lives in their own hands. Along the 2000-mile trail, stretching from the "Big Muddy" to the great ocean, relay stations were established at regular intervals, and bronchos and a number of men equipped with rifles and revolvers were stationed at each. It was not unexpected that mishaps should occur while making the long journey across the continent. Now and then a rider would lose the road, and, bewildered, wander around for hours in search of the lost trail. Once in a while a rider would be caught in a blinding snow-storm; another would be impeded in his ride by a swollen stream on the plains or in the mountains; and thus considerable valuable time would be lost. Occasionally a horse would drown and the rider, knowing it was a case of life or death with him, would be obliged to swim ashore and, with the mail-pouch of valuable letters on his back, walk to the next station and secure a fresh pony to complete his ride. The letters in care of the pony express were wrapped in oil-silk as a protection against the weather, being then placed in the four pockets of the leather pouch specially prepared for them. The reason for so many pockets was that the weight might be, as near as possible, evenly distributed, and that there be little inconvenience to both pony and rider. The pouch was provided with locks, and keys to it were distributed at the various forts along the route and also at Salt Lake City and Carson. Even with the packages of letters wrapped in oil-silk, they were sometimes injured by water when it became necessary for the riders to swim their horses across swollen streams. In at least one instance it is recorded that the horse was drowned, but the rider, with the letters, was saved. At times there would be a lively chase for the rider by Indians, but only once has there been mention made when he was overtaken. On this occasion the rider was scalped, but the pony escaped with the letter pouch, which was subsequently recovered out on the plains and the letters promptly forwarded to their destination. |
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