The Mongol empire, ruled by Genghis Khan and his descendants in the 1200s and 1300s, covered most of Asia, the Middle East, and Russia. Far larger than any empire built by the Greeks, Romans, or Russians, it stretched from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean, the largest mass of connected land ruled by anyone in history, before or since. (American Museum of Natural History)
In 13th-century China Marco Polo described a “system of post-horses by which the Great Khan sends his dispatches.” Using this as an example, 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 delivered.
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.
In 1848 the US 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.
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. (NPS)
In 1855 Congress even appropriated $30,000 to see if camels could carry mail from Texas to California – they proved impractical. Then, 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, Arkansas and reached San Francisco.
Pre-Civil War settlers who had already reached California and its promise of gold found themselves cut off from the rest of the world. Butterfield Express’s took twenty-three days for delivery.
Most people knew it was a matter of time before the telegraph and railroad would span the continent, but with the Civil War looming, something was needed to replace the existing overland route. (Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)
With civil war threatening to close southern routes, northern politicians sought a central route. Benjamin F Ficklin had carried US Army dispatches from Utah Territory and proposed that the government could provide express mail service using a horse relay. (NPS)
William Russell of the freighting firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell created the Pony Express almost by accident. Russell, William 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.
The three partners started a new firm, the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Company (COC & PP) – the official name of the Pony Express. (NPS) It ran from St Joseph, Missouri (that was connected to the East by railroads and the telegraph) to Sacramento and San Francisco, California.
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 pm precisely.” (NPS)
On April 3, 1860, the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously left St Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.
Ten days later, on April 13, the westbound rider and mail packet completed the approximately 1,800-mile journey and arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound packet’s arrival in St Joseph by two days and setting a new standard for speedy mail delivery. (History A&E)
COC & PP 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).
Some of the Pony stations were set up at the various forts along the Oregon Trail. Many stations 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. (NPS)
The company employed between 80 and 100 riders and several hundred station workers. Riders had to weigh less than 120 pounds and carry 20 pounds of mail and 25 pounds of equipment.
Riders earned wages (based on initial advertisements for riders, they were paid $50 per month) plus room and board. They joked that the company’s initials, C.O.C.& P.P., stood for “Clean Out of Cash & Poor Pay.”
Riders had to sign a pledge promising not to swear, drink alcohol, or fight with other employees. The riders carried the mail in the four pockets of a pack which fit snugly over the saddle and was quickly switched from one horse to another. Letters were wrapped in oil silk to protect them from moisture. (Postal Museum)
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.
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.
Newspapers relied on the Pony Express to deliver the latest headlines like when Abraham Lincoln was elected president or when the City of San Francisco opened its first railway that ferried passengers around the city on horse-drawn streetcars.
The Pony Express also helped deliver international news. Headlines that traveled over the ocean by ship could reach the opposite coast in just 18 days. (newspapers-com)
In April 1861 the Pony delivered word of the outbreak of the Civil War. (Pony Express National Museum) On October 26, 1861, the completion of the transcontinental telegraph from New York to San Francisco made the Pony Express obsolete.
On that day the Pony Express was officially terminated, but it was not until November that the last letters completed their journey over the route. (NPS)
News relayed via Pony Express, and then on to ships coming to Hawai‘i, was reported in the local newspapers (under ‘Foreign News’). At least one letter made its way to/from Hawai‘i. In 1861, the US Consul in Honolulu sent a letter to John C Underwood, the fifth auditor of the United States Treasury in Washington DC. (Stamp Auction)
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