Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-09-17
The Old Way of Crossing the Plains.

THE most curious and perfect of all
the pony expresses was that which used
to run across the plains. Of course you
know what mean by the plains. When
was a boy almost the whole country
between the Mississippi River and the
Pacific Ocean was called, on the maps,
the Great American desert" and in my
geography it was described as wide,
sandy plain. In my mind it was not un-
like the Desert of Sahara, with fiercer
tribes inhabiting it. Schoolboys nova
days have better maps and biographies,
and know this country by the names OF
the great States of Kansas, Nebraska,
Colorado and Nevada, which have been
formed of it. What was desert to as is
prairie to you, boys; what we thought
barren, sand you know to be rich soil and
you cross it by rail in three days where
we, in stage-coaches, used to make the
trip in seventeen. The Pacific Railroad
killed the pony express; but in its day
the latter was a great institution, which
would have put TO the blush the pony
express of the Russians and Tartars, or
our own army couriers. 1t was not a
Government line, either; private enter
prise started and kept it going on grand
scale. 1t fused up and broke down"
more than thousand horses and Indian
ponies year 1t employed nine or ten
hundred couriers and coach-drivers and
station-keepers, and more than one
hundred Concord coaches. Every day
in the year one of these stages started
from the east end and one from the west
end of the route, and often as many
as fifty were making the trip at
the same time, The coach stations
were ten miles apart, and there
were more than two hundred of
them in ALL The route led from Atchi-
son, Mo, across the plains for five days
to Denver, Col; then five days more up
the Rocky Mountains to Salt Lake City,
Utah; then seven days more down the
mountains to Sacramento city, Cal.
At one station the stage-coach reached
a level of 5000 feet above the plains, and
in the summer months it was the custom
OF the drivers to stop there ten minutes,
not for refreshments, but to allow the
passengers the novel pleasure of snow
balling each other in July. In these
dreary mountains few persons were then
to be met, other than members of the
family of Mr.. Grizzly Bear, who, if he
happens TO be hungry, is very unpleas-
ant fellow TO travel with. On the plains
the enemy most dreaded was the red
skinned tribes, whose rowing bands al
most daily attacked the coaches. To re-
pei such attacks each passenger was re-
CURED to carry rifle as part of his bag
gage. A "crack driver" was one who
could drive four horses at full speed with
the reins in his teeth and rifle in his
hands. Every station was a fort, with
soldiers to defend it. Often the coaches
had to be guarded from station to station
by the soldiers, who followed on horse
back and at times the soldiers and pas
sengers were forced to fortify them
selves in the coach and fight until help
came by the approach of other coaches.
Seventeen days of trip like this would
furnish almost enough adventure for a
lifetime.
But it was the swift mail-couriers of
this line who ran risks and led adven-
turous lives full of daring and danger.
They ran the gantlet of the Indians all
alone-at night as well as by day-and a
rough time many of them had of it.
Their stations were twenty-five miles
apart, and the trips between them had to
be made at Il full gallop, and In two
hours and half, winter or summer, day
or night, over plain or mountain. The
horses were hardy Indian ponies, swift
and sure of foot; but the service killed
them very rapidly. The riders were old
pioneers, who knew the ways of the In
dams and how to avoid them. Still
many of them fell victims to their dar-
ing and their sense of duty. The long
trip of 1000 miles occupied the mail-car-
riers eight days, at the rate of more than
ten miles an hour; but important election
news was carried at still more rapid
rate. But at length the harnessed light
ming and the iron horse distanced the
pony on his own track, and he has gone
farther west to pastures new.-FrOm
"7he Pony ErpresS," in st. Nicl.okas for
September.