Last updated: June 13, 2022
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The pony-rider was usually a little bit of a man, brimful of spirit and endurance.
—Mark Twain
Overland Mail
The idea behind the Pony Express, a horseback relay mail service, goes back to at least ancient Rome and Persia. In 13th-century China Marco Polo described a “system of post-horses by which the Great Khan sends his dispatches.” Oregon missionary Marcus Whitman in 1843 proposed using horse relays to deliver mail from the Missouri River to the Columbia River in 40 days. But in 1845 it still took six months to get a message from President James K. Polk to California. By the late 1850s a half million people had migrated West, and they wanted up-to-date news from home. Something had to be done to deliver mail faster and to improve communication in the expanding nation.
News from Home!
The emigrants who moved West in the mid-1800s anxiously awaited mail from home. But mail took months to arrive, and by then the news was old. Westerners demanded better mail service. Congress established postal service to the Pacific Coast in 1847 and, in 1851, set the rate for a half-ounce letter at three cents for delivery if less than 3,000 miles and six cents if it went farther. Private contractors handled the business, which required huge government subsidies. With the discovery of gold, followed by statehood, California’s population mushroomed, increasing the urgency for better communication. In 1848 the U.S. Post Office awarded a contract to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to carry mail to California. The mail traveled by ship from New York to Panama, moved across Panama by rail, then by ship again to San Francisco. The goal, getting a letter from the East in three to four weeks, was seldom met. The government struggled to improve transcontinental mail service. In 1855 Congress even appropriated $30,000 to see if camels could carry mail from Texas to California—they proved impractical. John Butterfield won a $600,000 contract in 1857 that required mail delivery within 25 days. His overland stagecoach service began in 1858 on a 2,800-mile route that left Fort Smith, Ark. and reached San Francisco via El Paso, Tex. and Yuma, in Arizona Territory. Despite its length and scarcity of water, no snowbound mountains blocked this route. Powerful southern political interests kept government subsidies on these southern trails. With civil war threatening to close southern routes, northern politicians sought a central route. Benjamin F. Ficklin had carried U.S. Army dispatches from Utah Territory and proposed that the government could provide express mail service using a horse relay. California Sen. William Gwin backed the idea.
Planning the Pony Express: Seize the Opportunity
William H. Russell of the freighting firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell created the Pony Express almost by accident. Russell, William B. Waddell, and Alexander Majors were Missouri business partners with vast experience hauling cargo and passengers— and a great interest in government mail contracts. Their firm already provided mail and stagecoach service between the Missouri River and Salt Lake City.
Russell felt that a horse relay, a Pony Express, would promote his company and gather congressional support to win the mail contract for a central overland route. He was confident this expensive advertisement would pay off in the long run, although Majors and Waddell were not so sure. With the backing of Senator Gwin but to the dismay of his partners, Russell committed to opening the express mail service on the central route in April 1860.
The three partners started a new firm, the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Company (C.O.C.& P.P.)—the official name of the Pony Express. Russell raised money in New York and political support in Washington, D.C.; Majors managed daily operations; and Waddell ran the home office. The company had 67 days to hire riders, station keepers, and mail handlers and buy horses, food, and other supplies and distribute them to stations across the route (some were not yet built or even located).
Majors organized the route into five divisions, numbered east to west. The first leg ran from St. Joseph, Mo., to Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory on the Platte River. The second went to Horseshoe Station near Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory. These traced the route of the Oregon and California trails, with a dip into today’s Colorado at Julesburg. The third took the emigrant trail to Fort Bridger and the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. The fourth, to cross the Great Basin, followed a route opened in 1858 by James Simpson that ran south of the Great Salt Lake desert to Roberts Creek Station, north of today’s Eureka, Nev. The fifth leg was the toughest of the trip, crossing the Nevada desert and rugged Sierra Nevada, finally arriving at Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif.
C.O.C.& P.P. established home stations every 75 to 100 miles (to house riders between runs) and smaller relay stations every 10 to 15 miles (to provide riders with fresh horses). The names of some of the Pony stations—Kearny, Chimney Rock, Scotts Bluff, Fort Laramie, Sweetwater, Fort Bridger—were already famous in western history. Many were upgraded from existing stagecoach stations, but some stations were built from scratch. The operation expanded from 86 stations on the Pony’s first run to 147 stations by mid-1861.
God Speed to the Boy and the Pony
“Men Wanted! . . . Men familiar with the management of horses, as hostlers or riders on the Overland Express Route via Salt Lake City. . . Wages $50 per month.” Sacramento Union, March 19,1860
So announced newspaper ads. Hires ranged from teenagers to about age 40. Weight restrictions were strict. Riders had to weigh less than 120 pounds and carry 20 pounds of mail and 25 pounds of equipment.
Some riders were given an inscribed leather Bible (see far left). Employees took this oath: “While I am in the employ of A. Majors, I agree not to use profane language, not to get drunk, not to gamble, not to treat animals cruelly, and not to do anything else that is incompatible with the conduct of a gentleman. And I agree, if I violate any of the above conditions, to accept my discharge without any pay for my services.” The job was exacting and not for the faint of heart.
The company employed between 80 and 100 riders and several hundred station workers. Riders earned wages plus room and board. They joked that the company’s initials, C.O.C.& P.P., stood for “Clean Out of Cash & Poor Pay.” The Pony employed some characters—not all living up to the pledge of obedience and abstinence befitting a gentleman. Division Superintendent Jack Slade ran wild when drunk but “kept the road cleared of robbers and horse thieves.” Some say Assistant Station Tender James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickock shot agent David McCanles and two others at Rock Creek Station in Nebraska. “Buffalo Bill” Cody never rode for the Pony Express, but he used his Wild West Show to promote the Pony’s legend and romance.
Horses were selected for swiftness and endurance. Russell advertised for “200 grey mares, from four to seven years old, not to exceed fifteen hands high, well broke to the saddle and warranted sound.” The company bought 400 to 500 horses, many thoroughbreds for eastern runs and California mustangs for western stretches. Horses averaged 10 miles per hour, at times galloping up to 25 miles per hour. During his route of 75 to 100 miles a rider changed horses eight to 10 times.
Mail traveled in four, locked leather boxes sewn onto the corners of a leather mochila (knapsack) that fit over the saddle. The design allowed for fast removal and placement on a fresh horse. The exchange of horses and mail was more casual than legend has it. Riders often stopped to eat or drink and stretch their legs, but Mark Twain wrote that the “transfer of rider and was mail-bag was made in the twinkling of anof eye.” Twain also reported that from his stagecoach he “heard only a whiz and a hail, and the swift phantom of the desert was gone before we could get our heads out the windows."
Great Race Against Time: The First Rides
On April 3, 1860, after weeks of frenzied preparation, the day for the first rides arrived. The St. Joseph Daily Gazette declared it would “forward, by the first Pony Express, the first and only newspaper which goes out, and which will be the first paper ever transmitted from the Missouri to California in eight days.” This Pony Express Edition also announced, “The first pony will start this afternoon at 5 p.m. precisely.” The westbound rider actually left at 7:15 p.m. reportedly carrying five telegrams, 49 letters, and newspapers printed on lightweight paper “as airy and thin as gold leaf.” The eastbound mail left San Francisco at 4 p.m., traveling by the paddle steamer Antelope to Sacramento. From Sacramento, rider Sam Hamilton blazed east, changing horses six times, and passed the mochila to Warren Upson who took the mail over the Sierra Nevada in a blizzard. East and westbound riders passed each other on April 8, west of today’s Farson, Wyo. Bands, banners, bells, and occasionally “a wild cavalcade of men” greeted riders along the way. After covering nearly 2,000 miles, the eastbound mail reached St. Joseph on April 13. The reception was tumultuous, with bands and cheering people lining the streets. In Sacramento a mounted escort and cannon fire greeted the Pony rider. The westbound mail arrived in San Francisco about 1 a.m. on April 14. Thousands of people turned out to watch the Antelope arrive with the first mail. The crowd lit bonfires and held a boisterous celebration.
The Pony Express charged five dollars per half-ounce for mail (about $85 in today’s money), later reducing the fee to one dollar. At first the Pony ran once a week in each direction. Starting in July 1860 it ran a second weekly trip, delivering mail in 10 days or fewer between St. Joseph and San Francisco.
Only once did the mail not go through. The service suspended operations from May to late June 1860 during an Indian uprising. Over the winter Paiutes in Nevada endured harsh weather and faced starvation. They blamed the thousands of miners who destroyed Indian food and water sources as they dug for gold and silver. Tensions grew, and the Pony became a target. Paiutes razed relay stations, killed employees, and drove off horses. The disrupted service brought heavy financial losses to the already struggling company.
The greatest challenge to the Pony proved to be not Indians but winter weather. Freight roads to the Nevada mines kept Sierra Nevada passes open during much of the winter, but snows that buried the high country between Salt Lake and Fort Laramie often proved too much for a single rider. Still, delivery continued even during January with only a four- to six-day delay.
An Enduring American Legacy: Risky Business— Legendary Payoff
The Pony Express was as risky a venture as any taken on the frontier. Russell, Majors & Waddell had survived on loans made against its government debts since 1858, and the company was essentially bankrupt when it launched C.O.C.& P.P. Russell counted on winning the central overland mail contract to revive the company’s fortunes, but Congress adjourned in June 1860 without taking action. Russell tried to save the business by secretly borrowing bonds through a friend in a government agency. The story became public in December 1860, leading to a scandal and Russell’s arrest. He beat the embezzlement charges, but the troubles spelled disaster for the Pony Express. With the start of the Civil War in 1861 Congress appropriated money to support the overland mail, after the secession of Texas closed the southern routes. But the contract went to Butterfield’s Overland Mail Company not to the Pony Express.
Officially the Pony Express ceased operations with the completion of the transcontinental telegraph on October 26, 1861. The Pony made its last run on November 20, 1861. It completed some 300 runs each way over 600,000 miles and carried more than 33,000 pieces of mail.
The Pony’s achievements in spreading news and uniting the nation were significant.
By early 1861 war between the North and South seemed certain. Whether California decided to remain in the Union depended, in part, on policies presented in Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address. The Pony delivered Lincoln’s March 4 message to California in the fastest time ever—seven days and 17 hours—bringing news that helped the state stay loyal. In April 1861 the Pony delivered word of the outbreak of the Civil War. Until the Pony’s last run in November 1861 it brought news of battles and lists of dead and wounded to anxious westerners.
In its 19 months the Pony Express captured the hearts and imagination of people around the world and marked a milestone in our nation’s communication system. The abiding fascination with the Pony’s story is one of its enduring legacies. The Pony Express lives on today—in books and movies and with thousands of people who love its history. Each year since 1978 the National Pony Express Association rides the trail in a 10-day, round-the-clock, non-stop event. More than 500 riders follow a 1,943-mile route that is close as possible to the original trail. Today Pony riders use shortwave radios and cell phones to spread the news of their journey.
In 1861 newspapers paid tribute to the Pony’s accomplishments: “You have served us well.” The Sacramento Daily Bee bid “Farewell Pony!” and saluted the “staunch, wilderness-overcoming, swift-footed messenger” that had “dragged in your train the lightning itself.”
Pony Express Trail Timeline
For millions, email and the Internet have replaced letters and newspapers. But, how did we communicate 50, 100, or 600 years ago? Check out the highlights of some key people, inventions, and technologies that changed how we spread the news!