Yeah, but the whole “wild west” was pretty ephemeral. Cattle drives really took place over <25 years. The western Indian Wars were <30. Weird how such a relatively brief period became so iconographic.
Driving through Nebraska recently, we stopped at a rest area which was just south of the PE route. Neat, unexpected bit of history.
I feel like this is one of those facts I’ve “learned for the first time” over and over again, like my brain refuses to make it canon.
Well, where did the Pony Express transfer stations eventually go? It’s nearly impossible to have something like that without at least some local support. Someone had to build the stables and hostels where the horses and riders rested between legs, someone had to bring in food for the horses and humans, etc. You can support something like this from afar, but it gets much more difficult, very quickly: If, for instance, you haul in a wagonload of hay every few days to feed the horses, and a wagon goes a third as fast as a mail horse, then you need three times as many waystations to support those supply wagons, and the wagons need to carry feed not just for the fast mail horses, but also for the beasts pulling the wagons. The difficulty grows exponentially with the distance from the most remote waystation to some sort of established settlement.
TIL that the priceless ‘help wanted’ ad was likely a hoax.
“Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred,”
There are some Pony Express station remnants here in the west. Some are in the middle of BFE, and those that were in cities have either been converted to other building uses or preserved for history.
With a 1,900 mile route there would have been over 100 stations. Wiki says there were 184 stations. I’ve seen a couple of them. All that was left were rock walls of a cabin or lodge, and those walls were maybe 2-3 feet high.
Correct, but have you ever been across Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada where the PE traveled? Even today there’s very little farming along much of that route, meaning that all food and hay had to be transported long distances. Heck, in 1841 (the original date we were discussing), Missouri was the westernmost state. Fort Kearney in Nebraska, one of the PE stations, wasn’t established until 1848. The first stagecoach trip to San Francisco didn’t happen until 1858. I’m still not buying the idea of news being transmitted by word of mouth across the western half of the nation in 1841. Obviously, YMMV.
It was a really cool mail delivery route that grabs the imagination. It was also impractical and expensive. 20 or 30 days reliably would have been as useful as 10 days. Luckily the Iron Horse was on the way.
And the actual terminus was the B.F. Hastings Building, which IIRC is across the street from the statue, or in that general vicinity. The building now houses the Wells Fargo Museum.
Has the pony made it to Sacramento, yet? I’m having trouble with the re-enactment maps.
But Young Riders lasted for 34 months (profitability uncertain).
Not yet. It’s still in Nevada. It’s scheduled to cross the state line at dinner time tomorrow.
Me neither. Have you ever played the telephone game? It can be VERY entertaining comparing the original message with the final that was received at the end of the chain.
The message originally sent MUST BE the message that is received.
Also, just because people do move about, it does not mean there is a preponderance of people moving west. Further, there would be very few people crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains, or the great western desert.
From what I can see, they are running pretty damn late. Still east of Austin. And that’s a long trip in a fast car from here.
Yep, they’re going through some rugged landscape right now in Emigrant Canyon. And it will be a while before they get out to some relatively flat ground.
Yeah, for some reason it always has to be taught, even though it was totally insignificant and even pointless.
LOL- no glory.
Yeah, I chuckled at “glory” too.
The PE is about halfway across Nevada now, at 1345 Pacific.
@Gatopescado thank you for the invite, but I will not be able to travel tomorrow. My wife reminded me that we have dinner plans with an old friend.
I’m now looking at driving to Sacramento. If they stay on schedule they’ll arrive at the statue @ 1630.
I just walked outside, and it looks like they are in for some pretty shit weather. Hope they got waterproof dusters.
And these guys ride 24/7.
Here is the California list of stations and predicted schedule.
Source ➜ http://nationalponyexpress.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-CA-Re-Ride-Schedule.pdf
I’ll be going to Sacramento on Thursday. I also plan to go to some of the earlier stations. It might be running late, but the website currently says it is on time. ➜ Follow The Ride – National Pony Express Association