The Washington bee., 1893-12-16
THE FAMOUS PONY EXPRESS.
Fast, Hard, and Dangerous Riding with
Letters for the Gold Diggers

Fast, Hard, and Dangerous Riding with
Letters for the Gold Diggers.
The regular work of the daring and
romantic overland Pony Express riders
has never been exceeded, even by the
recent specially trained for long dis
tance riding of the German and Aus
trian army officers. When it is consid
cred that those Pony Express riders
travelled over wild country, without
bridges, or even roads deserving the
name, crossed two great mountain
chains, vast alkali deserts, and had to
fight Indians and wolves along much
OF their journeys, and that the aver
age time made was 25O miles a day,
1t will be seen that even the Govern
ments which pay attention to such
matters have no such courier system
to call upon. But this system was or
ganized for the accommodation of the
gold miners of California, who were
able and willing to pay, and in fact
did pay, IS for each half ounce of mail
brought to them from the old folks at
home by the daring little Pony Express
riders. Each rider was limited to fif-
teen pounds Of mail, which was divid-
ed into four packages of equal weight
and carried in saddle pockets, two in
front and two behind the rider So it
will be seen that each rider carried
mail for which the company received
$1,000, In addition, of course, to the
United States postage.
The route of the Pony Express be-
| gan at st. Joseph, Mo-, and extended
due west to Fort Kearney, Neb.,
thence up the Platte River to Jules
burg, Col, across the Platte and to
Forts Laramie and Bridges, Wyo., and
on to Salt Lake, Utah. The descent
into the plains of Nevada was made
by the route through Ruby Valley and
thence along the Humboldt River. The
, Sierra Nevadas were crossed by way
Of Canyon City, Placerville, then
known as Hangtown, and the Sacra-
| mento Valley, reached by the road the
| miners had made down by Folsom to
Sacramento, and thence along the val
| ley and over the foothills into San
Francisco, where the long journey
ended.
There were always eighty riders in
the saddle, forty going east and forty
west. Change stations were close to-
| gether, especially over the mountain
GUS sections, as the ponies were kept
| at top speed from station to station,
| no matter what kind of country they
had to travel Many of the brave light
weights who rode in the Pony Express
service lost their lives in Indian fights,
for the gentle red man seemed to es-
TEEN 1t peculiarly high honor to
dangle an Express riders scalp at his
belt.
The wonder was that the service was
kept up at all; that so many of the
riders escaped the Indians, and the
dangers Of flood, storm, snow. heat and
cold. Their chief advantage in en-
counters with the Indians was that
the Pony Express riders were always
better mounted, on better fed horses,
than the Indians, and could take care
of themselves in a chase. They were
wary and experienced lot and diff
cult to ambuscade, so that while an
| occasional scalp was lost there were
not many of the letters longed for
which never came over that danger
GUS route.
The Pony Express went out of exist
ence when the overland railroad and
telegraph service was completed in
1869. Few of the old riders are still
living, and the promoter of the scheme.
William H. Russell, and his chief as
sistant, B. F. Ficklin, are both dead