The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-01
PONY EXPRESS RIDING.

There has been a great deal o. CLAM
ou- and romance thrown around the
pony express business in the days before
the advent of the railroads" said T. r.
Miller. one of the corys of riders who
carried the mail across the plains in
1858. TO Denver Republican interviewer.
but the fact is. there was little romance
work.
II commenced to ride for the express
company in 1853, when the route was
laid out and the company organized
and continued to ride until Butterfield
/ came up and took the contract, and
the telegraph line was built. My route
was from Egan canyon to Antelope
Springs, New. The riders had 10 ride
from 50 TO so miles On my section l
had two relays. and used to make the
trio in from six to eight hours. There
was always more or less danger from
the Indians, but when we met them We
either ran away from them, crawled
around them, or fought. The danger
has been greatly magnified. The coun
try was so big and the number of In
dams so comparatively small that we
had to run into band before there was
any serious danger, and then one white
man was as good as ten of them.
Our stations were not fortified at all.
They were log cabins or sod houses, with
three or four men in each. and though
they were burned over and over again.
the.- were rebuilt immediately and no
serious loss or Inconvenience to the serV-
tce was OccaSioned.
We knew Just when to expect the
rider from the next station, and the
horses were always ready. so that all
we had to do was to change the mail
f:om one horse to another and we were
OF. The horses were always ready.
and the only delay was in taking drink
OF water or cup OF coffee and the mail
On its way.
1t was simply hard riding a cool
head and keen eye that was required.
rlnTl E1a urerlNf
l-ave a scar or two myself TO remember
the Indians by; but on the whole the
danger was not excessive. and as Tor
romance there was nothing of it. In
1861 the Indians were specially trouble
some and some hard fights resulted;
bur as they never remained Ions in the
same place they could not do very
great deal of harm.
The first trial of the pony express
was the delivery Of Buchanan S message
in the spring of 1851. Our company.
which had the route from st: Joe, via
Salt Lake City. was the one which was
afterward operated BY Ben Holiday,
Rutterfelds route was through Ari-
IONA. We had the common mountain
ponies, and Butterfield had high-bred
horses We took the message right
through, and when Butterfield arrived
AT Mojave he found the message coming
back from San Francisco. Butter
field ran the southern route until 1860.
when he pulled off and established a line
OF coaches from st. Joe TO San Fran
cisco. via Salt Lake. In 1861 they COM
menced TO build the telegraph lines.
Il saw statement recently that
there are only five survivors of the pony
express riders. That is mistake. There
are Il number OF others. Besides myself,
know of Frank Low, now in Cripple
Creek: Erastus Egan, son of Major
Egan, of Egan canyon; James White,
John Fisher and SAM ellison, the disccv
erer of the beds of asphalt in Utah.
There was always excitement eTOugh
work. ana nearly all OF had
narrow escapes of one kind or another.
We had to make time, to look out for
Indians, and sometimes to race with
storms which were likely TO bar our
progress, but all these things soon be
came matters of course. We mounted
our ponies and pounded away until we
reached our stations. and then lay down
and waited until our time came next. 1t
was hard work sometimes, and pleasant
at others. very much the same as the
other occupations of human existence