Pony Express Timeline
January 1848
Gold is dicovered in California
January-March 1960
The Pony Express starts to be planned
April 3,1860
The first Pony Express rider starts his journey
April 14,1860
The first Pony Express delivery. proves mail can be delivered in ten days.
May 7, 1960
By this date many delivery's have been delivered . many young men have also been killed or injured by accidents, and Indian attacks.
June 25, 1860
Less Indian attacks leave the Pony Express people to deliver without delay
August 11,1860
Indian attacks start up again, this time worse then ever
August 13,1861
By this date Pony Express mail was being telegraphed two days before the pony express mail would arrive. this caused trouble for the Pony Express.
October 24,1861
The Pony Express is no longer used at this time.
(ST)
History Of the Pony Express
What It Was
The Pony Express started out with men riding horses, carrying saddlebags of mail to deliver. It was a mail delivery company that sent letters to people from miles and miles away. It took the men at least a day to travel the distance to deliver the mail to people. Riders would travel seventy-five to one hundred miles a day. They also had to switch horses every couple miles.
They had stations which had the mail and the resources they needed. They delivered military supplies and other different supplies to the stations. The government would come and pick up the supplies from the station. They would spend the night out and start a fire. They cooked their meals in a big pot. (AC)
How It Started
The Pony Express started after the “Gold Rush.” On January 24th, 1848 gold was discovered in California. People called the “49ers” wanted to collect for gold along the west coast. In 1853, William Waddell and William Russell started a company called “Waddell and Russell”. They delivered military supplies for the U.S. government to the west. The first trip took the riders two days to travel.
Later, In 1855 Alexander Majors joins the firm and renamed “Russell Majors and Waddell.” The firm owned Western Freighting and started a mail passage system for Colorado and Utah. But, in 1857, the Mormon War almost bankrupted the firm. Equipment and Supplies was stolen and destroyed during the war. (CC)
How “The Pony Express” Operated
The “Pony Express” consisted of hundreds of riders and their horses, stationed on a path from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. There were 184 stations along the route, supplying food water and essentials to riders and their horses. Letters were transported by having a rider and horse relay a mailbag 10 to 12 miles as quickly as possible from one station to the next. As soon as a rider finishes, a fresh rider and horse takes off as quickly as possible to the next station. Each rider earned one hundred dollars per month, which was a lot of money for the time. It cost around one dollar to send a one half ounce letter throughout the entire route. Only one mailbag and rider were ever lost during the operation of the Pony Express. Although The Pony Express was quite efficient, the weather and seasons still affected travel times, and a ten day trip in the summer would take up to two days longer in the winter. Riders would ride 75 to 100 miles a day, changing to a fresh horse at every station. (JP)
How the Pony Express Affected Mail History
The pony express affected the history of mail in many ways. One way the pony express affected the history of mail is it gave us the boost to start developing ways to deliver mail faster. If it wasn’t developed, and thought of, then we would probably still have an ineffective way to deliver mail, and it would take several months to deliver it.
It also helped us to start thinking creatively when we were coming up with ideas to deliver mail faster. What I mean is we were trying things that we thought were impossible, coming up with new ideas to do things, and new inventions. Without the success of the pony express we would probably not have had the confidence or creativity to try new inventions and ideas on how to deliver mail faster. (ST)
How the Pony Express helped People
The Pony Express helped people in many ways. One way the Pony Express helped people is that it cut delivery time to you would receiving the mail 10 days later. This helped the Pony Express grow and cherish. The Pony Express also helped the United States leaders. It helped them send confidential documents and bills to people on the West Coast. Some people refused to use the Pony Express because they did not want people reading their mail. The people were grateful enough that if the horses were not doing well for the riders they would give their best horses to the riders. (MN)
How the Pony Express Ended
Even though the Pony Express had financial issues their final demise didn’t come until the connection of telegraph lines all the way across the country. Only two days after the gap was closed between Eastern and Western telegraph lines the Pony Express was closed, on October 24, 1861. Despite its only 19 month run time the Pony Express had delivered some 35,000 pieces of mail and traveled half a million miles across the United States.
Most westerners preferred the Pony Express over the old stage coach way because the riders were fast and could go without breaking down. They also preferred the Pony Express over the telegraph because the telegraph lines would always break down and were unreliable. Even though the Pony Express wasn’t that advanced form of mail delivery, it helped serve a purpose for the United States and created a new frontier for future mail delivery techniques, such as mail men, and the National Postal Service. (KA)