Page 25 - 2005 DT 12 Issues

I n T h i s I s s u e !

Featured Article
Pony Express.......................................1
Special
Quiz.......................................................6

Departments
April 2005 News & Notes.......................................2
Programs & Hikes.................................4
Desk Schedule.....................................6
Bulletin Board.......................................8

TEN DAYS TO SAN FRANCISCO St. Joseph, Missouri the eastern end.
In between lay 2,000 miles of wilder-
FOR FIVE DOLLARS—Your letter, ness and hazards known and unknown.
It was easy enough to establish main
that is . . . by Pony Express by Chuck Kleber offices in Sacramento and St. Joseph,
but they needed relay stations along
the way and men to man these lonely
n unusual ad appeared in a San the brainchild of William Russell, an outposts. Most important, they needed
AFrancisco newspaper: entrepreneur extraordinaire. He had about 80 tough riders and 400 to 500
close friends and bitter enemies, made
Wanted. Young, skinny wiry on his way to becoming a rich freight equally tough ponies.
fellows, not over eighteen. Must operator in Missouri. He was the type On April 3, 1861, the first rider,
be expert riders willing to risk to take chances. He saw opportunity Johnny Frey, spurred his pony west-
death daily. Orphans preferred. and drew in two partners who were ward from St. Joe. In his mailbags he
Wages $25 per week. carried 49 letters, a few newspapers and
Apply Central Overland Express. completely opposite to each other. telegraphic dispatches. In California,
Alexander Majors was a real fron- another rider headed east. The west-
tiersman, but he was also a solid and
That was good money in the sober trail boss ward route ran
spring of 1860. And if you were 18, who started a suc- from St. Joseph
the thought of adventure probably cessful freighting to Fort Laramie
outweighed the risk of death and that business in the in eastern Wyo-
ominous “Orphans Preferred” in the 1840s. The third ming, then along
ad. You could soon be with the Pony partner was Wil- the Sweetwater
Express and ride into history. But you liam Waddell, a River, through
didn’t really have to be 18; it was said no-nonsense busi- South Pass to
that “Bronco” Charlie Miller was nessman who had Fort Bridger and
only 11 years old when he became been associated Salt Lake City,
a rider. One rider was in his 40’s. with Russell for across the Great
“Skinny” meant something around years and watched every penny. They Basin of northern
120 pounds. Nevada and over the Sierra Nevada
It was less than two years earlier were a good balance for each other, and mountains into California. Ideally, this
that the Butterfield Overland Mail six years after their partnership began, journey took ten days, but the Pony
opened its stagecoach service between they made history in announcing the Express ran in all weather conditions.
Missouri and California, carrying Pony Express service on January 27, In the winter, it could take another five
passengers and mail along a southern 1860. or six days.
route. But it took just over three weeks. The problems ahead were enor-
There was a call for a really express mous. A decision was made to make
mail service. Enter the Pony Express, Sacramento the western terminus with
Pony Express, continued on page 6