Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1904-11-11
THE PONY EXPRESS

lHE SUN1 EAI hLOO
FIRST STEP SHORTENING DIS
TANCE ACROSS CONTINENT.
The Start Was Made April Sd. 1900. Over a
Route 1850 Miles in Length Between St.
Joseph, NO.. to Sacramento. Cal - Mail
Weight Limited to 20 Pounds-Letter Rate
Was SS Per Half Ounce-Statons Is Miles
Miles Apart Covered in Eight Days
400 Station keepers-S0 Riders and 500
Horses Employed -Supplanted by Telegraph
in About 70 Months. Having Cost 100000
or 100000 More Than the Revenue.
The Pony Express was one Of the
incidental steps in the progress OF ra-
pid news communication and financial
exchanges between California and the
East. Gold was discovered in Califor-
MIA on January 10, 1913. and that
event caused rapid influx of pOpula-
ton. 1t was the first State admitted
to the Union in the entire western
half OF this country. But communi-
cation was slow, both for mails and
freight. A Pacific railroad was merely
a dream of the future, as was trans
continental telegraph line. In the
later SOS, when the political skies were
darkening with the clouds of the COM
ing civil war, there were three freight
ing and stage lines from the then
western frontier to California. How
ever, the mails and the bulk of the
freight business was done across the
Jsthmus Of Panama-by steamer from
New York to Aspinwall, now renamed
Colon; thence by the Panama Rail-
road, opened in 1855. to Panama, and
thence by Pacific steamers to San
Francisco. The best time by this
route for the mails was % days.
Of the overland freighting lines, the
main one followed what was then
known as the Central Route" going
across the plains, through South Pass
and Salt Lake City, to Sacramento,
thence by boat to San Francisco
From the time of the admission OF
California as State the demand for
more rapid mail transit grew with her
increasing business interests.
In 1855, a bill was introduced in
Congress by Senator Gwin, OF Califor-
mia, to pay subsidy of not to exceed
5000 for round trip for weekly
mail over the Central Route between
st. Louis and San Francisco. The bill
went to the committee on Military
Affairs, and was never heard OF after
wards. But in the latter part Of 1859,
the freighting firm of Russell, Majors
& Waddell, who were running a line Of
freight wagons overland from st. Jos.
eph to Sacramento, were induced, by
the efforts OF Senator Gwin, to under.
take letter express, the Senator'S ar
gument being that, if they would dem.
onstrate the feasibility of steady COM
munication, summer and winter, on a
schedule shorter than the % days via
Panama, a contract could be obtained
from the government for handling
virtually all OF the transcontinental
letter mail.
The above named firm could see no
money in the project as an independ.
ent proposition, but went into it as a
speculation, in the hope OF obtaining q
government contract which would re-
coup the inevitable losses. They in.
corporatsd the "Central Overland
California and Pixies Peak Express
company" taking in their General
Superintendent, B. F. Ficklin, and
three employees, to make up the statu-
tory number OF incorporators. This
new company took over the firms
stage line from Atchison to Salt Lake
City, and purchased the Chorpenning
mail contract and stage outfit, which
was operating a monthly line between
Salt Lake City and Sacramento. The
new company also purchased the fran.
chise and equipment of a company
operating daily stage line between
Leavenworth and Denver. All this
was done to secure stations on the pro.
jected express line. The new letter
express did not take the place OF these
stage and mail lines, which were oper.
ated independently of it.
The letter express plan, as it was
carried out, contemplated mail line
on horseback between St. Joseph and
Sacramento, 1850 miles. At the lat.
ter city the mail was transferred to a
waiting steamer, and was taken as
speedily as possible to San Francisco,
which was the business terminus
This service was called the Pony Ex.
press" in popular parlance-for horse
was called "pony" anywhere west OF
the Missouri in those days. To start
the service, GO wiry and fearless young
men were employed as riders, there
we're 100 station keepers in addition
to those at the already established
stage stations, and 420 strong. wiry
horses we're purchased.
The start was made on April 3, 1860,