March 11, 2010
From The Pony Express Rider, 1861--"Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows, not over 18. Must be expert riders. Willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred."
When I was a kid growing up in northwest Missouri where the Pony Express originated, its lore and legend was a familiar part of our culture, but the Pony Express was never so mundane that it lost its magic.
It was romantic then, an icon, one that stirred visions of Buffalo Bill and of pell-mell dangerous rides through the perilous Wild West.
It is just as idolized and quixotic now.
Thus, it is no wonder that fans and historians alike are looking forward to its 150 th anniversary, April 1 to 3, in St. Joseph, where the Pony Express legend began.
It is not stretching the truth to say that back in the 50s, my siblings and I daydreamed about riders who dared to battle the dangers of the Wild West. On many a day, we stood on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River and pretended to be Pony Express riders.
Perhaps, the Pony Express fascinated us so much because of its lightening-fast horses and courageous, fearless young riders. After all, Pony Express riders traveled 75 miles per day through rugged terrain, fierce elements and unknown threats as fast as the horse could trot.
We thought that thrilling and exhilarating.
And that same excitement must have sparked the imagination of Americans on April 3, 1860, when the first Pony Express rider, Johnny Fry, left Pikes Peak Stables in St. Joseph. He carried U.S. mail bound for Sacramento, nearly 2000 miles away.
He was not a big person, Johnny Fry. The Pony Express horses could not carry heavy anything or anyone as they trotted at a fast-paced gait to a relay station, either 5 or 20 miles away. Horse and rider would travel to either a Swing Station where the rider would change mounts or to the Home Station where the rider would sleep.
Bold intrepid riders began their journey in St. Joseph, Missouri, and rode through Kansas along the Oregon Trail to Nebraska and on to Wyoming and Salt Lake City, and then through the Utah-Nevada dessert and over the Sierra Nevada mountains to California.
When Johnny Fry left St. Joseph on that day in 1860, he carried with him, according to records in the Pony Express National Museum in St. Joseph, forty-nine letters, five private telegrams and newspapers meant for folks in California.
Normal coast-to-coast mail delivery in those days took nearly a month by boat or stagecoach, but the Pony Express accomplished the impossible in only 10 days. A Herculean feat. Previously, it sometimes took the government of the United States six months to get an official message to the west coast.
Then just as fast as its horses and riders rode from one relay station to the next, the Pony Express ended its operation as suddenly as it started.
The "Pony Express Rider" published this explanation: "The completion of the telegraph line to California spelled the end of the Pony Express in October, 1861. Its lifetime had lasted only eighteen months but the imagery of a lone rider making a perilous journey against all odds made an indelible impression on the nation's collective memory."
Incidentally and according to legend, Buffalo Bill (William Cody) made the longest non-stop ride from Red Buttes Station to Rocky Ridge Station and back when he found that his relief rider had been killed. The distance of 322 miles over one of the most dangerous portions of the entire trail was completed in 21 hours and 40 minutes using 21 horses.
And as Buffalo Bill once recalled: "Excitement was plentiful... as a Pony Express rider."
No kidding.
(Note: The Pony Express Museum in St. Joseph, Mo, will host a three-day sesquicentennial event April 1-3. Details available at www.ponyexpress.org.)
