Origin of pony express An Americanism dating back to — Words nearby pony express Pontus , Pontus Euxinus , Pontypool , Pontypridd , pony , pony express , Pony League , pony pack , ponytail , pony trekking , pony truss.
Words related to pony express post. How to use pony express in a sentence He prefers to express himself through Twitter and leave it at that. Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B. Clara Erskine Clement. The Homesteader Oscar Micheaux. Confidence Henry James. Ramona Helen Hunt Jackson. This route would be about miles shorter and was known as the "Central Route. Gwin found the answer to his concerns in William Russell, a stage express company owner.
Russell agreed to establish a speedy and reliable express service over the Central Route, stretching from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco. Russell hoped to prove that his company was an able competitor to John Butterfield's Overland Mail Company, and win away the exclusive government mail contract. Russell, and his partners, Alexander Majors and William Waddell, were expected to operate the Pony Express for about a year.
Once the race to connect the telegraph had ended, with both ends expected to meet at Salt Lake City, the Pony Express would no longer be needed. Although both Russell and Gwin are referred to as the "Father of the Pony Express," the actual responsibility for making the venture work fell to Alexander Majors. Although he and Waddell had initially opposed the project, once his firm was pledged to the Pony Express, Majors committed his energies to the project's success.
With precision and expertise which would be envied by any military tactician, Alexander Majors arranged for the purchase of over ponies; the building of stations in desolate, uninhabited areas; the hiring of station masters to staff them; the stocking of provisions; and, of course, the hiring of the riders themselves. Majors' task, difficult under the best circumstances, had to be completed in two months. Relay stations were placed 10 miles apart. Every third station was a home station, where extra ponies, firearms, men, and provisions were kept.
Here, the mail would be handed over to a new rider. The route form St. Joseph to San Francisco stretched over 1, miles, through the plains of Kansas and into Nebraska, along the valley of the Platte River, across the Great Plateau, through the Rockies, into the valley of the Great Salt Lake, through the alkali deserts of Nevada, then over the snow-covered Sierra Mountains and finally into the Sacramento Valley.
The mail was carried between Sacramento and San Francisco by steamboat. The hardest part of the Sierra Nevada would have been in winter. There would be snow drifts and the tracks are relatively narrow.
You could fit a horse, sometimes two horses, but if there was a wagon in front of you, you had to wait until you got to a spot where you could get around it.
The desert was also very dangerous. If you knew where the path was, you were fine. In most places it was relatively well marked. But west of Salt Lake, in the desert, if you went off course a bit you could suddenly find yourself in a lot of trouble.
Nick Wilson is an interesting character. Uncle Nick , as he was called in later life, was from a Mormon family, who as a young boy then went to live with a Shoshone Indian family in the Utah area. He then ends up as a teenager coming back home where he meets someone who is recruiting for the Pony Express, and he gets a job.
He also worked as a stagecoach driver and a trapper. He was also said to have had a good way with breaking horses, like a horse whisperer.
It almost certainly started when some whites raped, or wanted to rape, some Indian girls. Naturally, their families took exception and the end result was that a number of whites were killed and several Pony Express stations were burned down.
As a result, the service was stopped because it was too dangerous to proceed. Remarkably, the people of eastern California, who were served by the Pony Express, raised money to rebuild some of the stations and supplied volunteers to help. The work force went from West to East, rebuilding the stations, and the service got back up and running shortly thereafter.
Interestingly, that happened while there was a census being taken. Because of that, riders who were part of the work force to rebuild the stations are recorded at certain locations where the census was taking place.
That enabled me to see how they are being listed in the census and get a picture of their ages and work conditions. And because of that, people can relate to it. But the Pony Express was always intended as a short-term venture to raise public awareness—like a huge PR stunt—to get a big mail contract. The mail contract they were counting on came much too late to help them, and when it did come, it was far too small.
But it is financial stuff that sinks Russell. He is so desperate for money that he goes to the War Department and tries to get an advance on some other contracts they had. But Russell uses them as collateral to get cash advances. Unfortunately, the whole scheme quickly collapsed. Simon Worrall curates Book Talk. Follow him on Twitter or at simonworrallauthor. All rights reserved.
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