|
Living today, in such a technologically advanced era, it is difficult if not impossible to believe that at one time in history, the mailing of a letter or parcel took more than one month to be delivered coast-to-coast. But before the advent of the Pony Express, this was most assuredly true of mail deliveries in the United States.
After many years of mail delivery via tired old wagon trains, whose masters boasted of "Guaranteed 20 Day Delivery," the Pony Express, created by William Russell, rode to the rescue of many Americans who longed for a reliable and efficient delivery of the mail.
Created mainly to help keep communications flowing in a more timely manner between the West and the nation’s capitol of Washington, D.C., until the transcontinental telegraph was completed, the Pony Express was indeed a much-needed tool for the time. While most Americans do not realize it, the Pony Express was created, used, and lost in less than two years’ time. Yet without it, many important government documents from that time in history would have perhaps lost their effectiveness, even perhaps their vitalness, if not for the legendary Pony Express.
A vision from Russell, the Express rode into business in April, 1860. Providing the fastest transit of mail, riders of the Express began their long and arduous journey in St. Joseph, Missouri, with the trail ending in San Francisco, California. As careful forethought, the central route of the Express ran well above the Southern states; government documents were in no event to fall into the hands of the South, in case of war.
Qualifications for the riders of the Express were somewhat stern, and for good reason, it seems. The dangerous trip out West carried with it several causes for concern. Torturous mountain paths; wide, open prairies; insurmountable snowdrifts; wild, churning rivers; scorching desert sun; all were enemies of the men who sought work with the Express. Pay was very good for the time, one hundred dollars per month, but add in the dangers listed above, along with hostile Indian tribes seeking back the land taken from them, and the salary did not seem like quite as much. Bulletins posted everywhere the eye could see read somewhat as follows: "Wanted: Riders for the new Pony Express. Must be no older than 20! Weigh no more than 125lbs! Must be wiry, full of energy and stamina! Must have long riding experience to be considered!"
The troop of riders in the outfit numbered between eighty and one-hundred. Some of the earliest of these men who made history were Johnny Fry, of St. Joseph; Billy Hamilton of Sacramento, and James Randall, San Francisco. The youngest rider of the Express, as legend goes, is 'Bronco' Charlie Miller, who was said to be only eleven years old when he began riding West.
Although each rider was relieved every hundred miles, the horses, mostly Morgans and Mustangs, were changed at 10-15 mile intervals. The average speed of the Express rider was approximately ten miles per hour, and the stations, where drop-offs and exchanges were made, numbered close to two hundred, with a distance of between ten and twenty miles between each stationhouse.
The fastest run on record, with a time of seven days, seventeen hours, carried quite an important document: President Abraham Lincoln’s Inaugural Address. The longest run seems quite at the other end of the spectrum: 'Pony' Bob Haslam rode for an astounding three hundred seventy miles, from Friday Station to Smith Creek Station, and back again. Considering the cost of this delivery was five dollars at the creation of the Express, perhaps the recipients of Pony Bob’s efforts did not fare as well as those who received President Lincoln’s manuscript.
Approximately six hundred and fifty thousand miles were covered by those riders who outfitted the Express. This number seems almost unbelievable, and might lead many to believe the Express was quite profitable. Unfortunately, the opposite turns out to be true of this vision of William Russell’s.
Russell, while a man of vision and ideas, did not have quite the same touch when it came to the business end of the Express as he did for its beginnings. Having the knowledge that when the eventual transcontinental telegraph was at long last installed, the need for the Express would no longer be as high, many thought Russell should have planned more wisely for his invention. He did not; not only did he fail to prepare for the coming days of less income, he hastily and without thought bought into very poor money-making schemes that would in the end cause the Pony Express Service to declare a total net profit of $125,000.00 in the negative.
Unfortunately, most of the hundreds of thousands of dollars the Express lost can be traced to one man: William Russell, its founder. However, were it not for his vision, his idea of what was truly a business brainstorm, the Express would not even have had its beginnings. Add to the woes caused by Russell’s greed and haste the fact the U.S. government reneged on its promise of a large subsidy, and it seems perhaps the Express was almost doomed to fail from the start.
There is much myth and legend paid tribute to the Pony Express; it is, after all, a large part of the taming of the American West, where myth and legend largely abound. Both the Express and the 'Wild West' have been exploited in the years since each were part of contemporary America. Dime store novels, highly romanticized western saloon shows, and the tall tales told from generation to generation have kept both the Pony Express and the Wild West alive, long after each had its first entries stamped into American history books.
|
| |
