Evening star., 1924-07-17
AIR FEATS RECALL
OLD PONY EXPRESS
Riders of 1860 as Much Hero
Then as Maughan, Mac
Ready and Kelly Today.
LINKED WEST TO EAST
Covered Distance From st. Louis
to West Coast in Ten
Days.


ITO the people Of California and
Utah of 1860 and 1861 the pony ex.
| press rider, who brought them war
news only week old, was almost
as great a hero as Paul Revere or
Lieut.. Maughan,' says d burIrtfn
from the Washington, d. C. head
Society in regard to the organization
to which a memorial tablet was re-
Gently unveiled in Salt Lake City.
'The name pony express raises 4
faint suggestion of romance in a few
minds today" continues the bulletin,
but with MacReady and Kelly and
Maughan flying from ocean to ocean
in matter of hours; with our night
lying postal airmen; with our rail
way trains that cross in four days:
with our kilograms delivered within
the hour; and able as We are. to
hear and recognize voice while il
Is speaking 5000 miles away: the
accomplishments of the fearless post
rloers of siHty-three years ago are
Iikely to be passed by as rather
simple. The establishment of this
weekly = and later serni-Weekly-
service. clipping ten days from the
mali time across the continent was
however an accomplishment of ex-
IRENE Importance. 1t has been cred
ited even with keeping California in
the Inlon during civil war days
Required Twenty-Eight Days.
AT the time the pony express came
INTO being the accepted mail route u
California was by steamer from New
YORK TO the Isthmus of Panama.
across the iSthmus by mule convey
anoe, and by ship from Panama to san
francisco-twenty- days. Later
the mail stage line from st, LOUIS
over the Santa F'e Trail. via Yuma.
and thence into Southern California
took letters between the two terminal
cities III eighteen days Beside these
records the ten-day letter and eight
day telegram schedules of the pony
express represented as great a stride
forward as the transcontin entail train
service made over existing methods
nine years later.
The winning of the West had ad-
vanced only as far as the Missouri
River, in the central section of the
country, in 1850 Beyond lay track
less prairies, rugged foothills, barrier
mountains and Indians. But farther
on, beyond the Rockies. along the
Pacific coast and in the Great Basin
region, were half d million Americans
building up another section Of the
United States far removed from its
parent block.
Rail Line Limited.
Railroads already connected the
East with st. Louis, and an additional
line had just been completed from ST.
Louis to st. Joseph, Mo. The latter
city, then. was the rail head Of the
United States and the ultimate west
ern outpost of the ordered civiliza-
tfon of the East Beyond it a few
military posts and some scattered
frontiersmen existed precariously
among hostile Indians. The problem
was TO bridge this gap and tie the
two United States" together with the
powerful thongs of news.
st. Jo' was also the western end of
the telegraph line from the East On
the Pacific side a telegraph line extend.
ed from San Francisco through Sacra-
mento to Placeryille, near Lake Tahoe
News could be flashed from New York
and Washington 10 ST. Joseph, could be
carried from there to Placerville by
pony, and could Immediately be wired
on to San Francisco. This enabled the
pony express to make a two-day shorter
schedule for kilograms than for mail,
Rail Bills Killed.
Though Government officials recos-
nzed the keen need for fast mail serv-
ice to the West coast, and though tho
westerners petitioned for it, the bills
introduced into Congress for Federal
participation were killed. A private firm
put the thing through, Russell. Majors
& Waddell, owners of freighting serv-
ice and predecessors to the big express
companies that grew Up with the rail-
roads. They organized the enterprise
quietly. -and surprised the nation with
advertisements in the spring of 1860 Of
ferlng to carry letters TO the Pacific in
10 days. The first riders to gallop west
from St. Joseph and east from San
Francisco. April :, 1860. were given en-
thusiastic and noisy send-offs and when
the relay riders came in--on schedule
10 days later both terminal towns sus-
pended business and had glorious cele-
brations.
Hoofs Never Idle.
What the pony express really did
was to stretch telegraph line OF
flesh and blood from frontier to from
tier and to keep it functioning in
spite of weather, Indians and desper-
ADDE'S. Riders were mortally wounded
by highwaymen or savages; but they
carried on to the next station, their
comrades took their places, and the
mail sped on Horses were changed
every 10 or II miles at stations eS-
tablished by the service. Riders had
runs of approximately rs miles. At
the end of his run run a rider would
be relieved, would sleep and rest, and
would then be ready to carry the
next mail in the opposite direction TO
his starting point Only a fraction
of minute was required TO change
the saddle bags from one mount to
another. Every minute of night and
day hoofS were pounding somewhere
between st. Jo' and Frisco and the
mail was moving at as fast gallop
as horse flesh could move il.
The route which the pony express
made famous was SO well chosen that
today lines of steel cover it almost
exactly. Leaving St Joseph. it par
alleled the presenth north boundary
of Kansas for about 100 miles, struck,
across TO the Platte River at itsI
southernmost dip i'll Nebraska, fol-f
lowed the South Platte Valley to thet
present northeast corner of Colorado.s
went up the North Platte to Fortk
Laramie, in Wyoming, and from there
crossed over the Rockies by South
Pass and on to Salt Lake City. The
worst section of the route lay west of
Salt Lake across the deserts and
alkali plains of Utah and Nevada IL }
Carson City. From Carson City it
was only d few miles, though rough
ones, to Lake Tahoe, and from there
tn areryri1la